Today I like to reflect on Part two of living joyfully in a culture of fear. In part one, I talked about the fact that there is so much fear, anxiety and paranoia among people these days. Especially after the events of 9/11, America has become a besieged society.
The gist of my last sermon was that we have to use the God within us, to calm our fears and use it as a shield against potential dangers and threats. Instead of relying on guns and other man-made gadgets, we can use the image of God as a protective shield; the light within us as a flashlight to dispel the darkness around us.
So part one of the security shield is focusing on the God within us. Part two is focusing on the God with us. What is the difference? The God within us is like a torch in our hand. The God with us is the sun, the source of light itself. Or, the God within us like a drop of the ocean, the God with us is the ocean itself. Like the ocean that creates, contains, sustains and protects the drop, God has created us, sustains us, protects us.
Apostle Paul says: “If God is with us who can be against us.” Do you really believe that?
Let us start with one of the most repeated phrase in the Bible. More than eighty times, God tells someone. “Don't be afraid," or "Fear not."
He says it to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. He says it four times to Joshua after the death of Moses because Joshua was so afraid to take on the leadership of his people. He says it to each of the prophets, and tells them to say it to the people in his name. In the New Testament, Jesus repeatedly tells his disciples not to be afraid. In fact, the first words out of the mouth of Jesus, after his resurrection was “do not be afraid.”
In spite of hearing “be not afraid” so many times, we are still afraid. You know why? Because we don't totally trust the promises of God. We think that if we have to survive in this so called crazy world, we have to take care of business. We have to take matters into our own hands.
So many, bible believing, church going Christians have told me: “Paul, but we have to be practical. If we wait for God to take care of us, it could be too late.” “A good bible and a good gun offer the best protection” one guy told me. So we try hard; we use all human gadgets and weapons to defend and protect us.
From this day forward, I want you to stop trying so hard. Stop relying on your frantic efforts, but on God's generous grace; stop depending on your performance, but on god's providence; stop covering all the bases and turn your face towards God. Stop feeling abandoned in the middle of the ocean called life and start feeling embraced by the unending ocean of divine Grace.
We should live fearless lives not because we are brave, but because God is benevolent. We should be fearless, not because we are smart, but because the Lord is my shepherd. We can be free and fearless not because of our faithfulness to god, but because of God's faithfulness to us.
Now, listen carefully. I did not say, our faithfulness to God. Faithfulness is usually understood as an initiative we take, a discipline that we follow, an effort that we put forth to please God and we are blessed in return.
I invite you to imagine and experience the whole process in reverse; as God's faithfulness to us. It is initiated and sustained by God. We can see it in the history of salvation. God's faithfulness to the Israelite even when they were not faithful to God.
I' m inviting you to have a paradigm shift; a shift in consciousness to see God's faithfulness to us rather than our faithfulness to God.
It could change your life; It changed mine.
First, we have to abandon our notion of God as a old man with a white beard sitting on a golden throne somewhere up in the sky. We have to believe in a God who is part of us rather than apart from us. We have to experience God as a PARTICIPANT in our sufferings rather than the PERPETRATOR of it. We have to see God more as a PRESENCE, than as a PERSON.
It is the God of psalm 139:
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the havens, you are there; if I make my bed in the d depths, your are there; O Lord, You have searched me and you know me;” Then comes this powerful verse: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb, I praise you because, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
I cannot imagine a God who created us with such love and care, will abandon us to fend for ourselves after we are born. I can't imagine Jesus promising us an abundant life and then pushing us into the abyss of an awful existence. Almighty God whom Jesus told us to call abba father, cannot and will not act that way towards his children.
A human father wouldn't do that to his child. Then how can God the father do it to us? I am thinking of my son Tommy. When he graduated from high school, I didn't say: “You are now 18, go to college and do what you need to do.” His mother and I prepared him for college with meticulous care. We drove him to Gainsville, set him up in the dorm, paid his rent and tuition, gave him a debit card, bought him a car, paid the insurance, gave him money for gas.
When saying good bye, Judy and I wailed like crazy people. We began missing him the minute we left him there. We anxiously waited for his phone call. It took three days for him to make a call to me. When I saw his name on the caller ID I was so excited. I thought he was going to ask me how I was doing. Or say he missed me. None of that. The first 9 words out of his mouth were:
“What is the pin number of my debit card?”
I was not offended. I smiled. That is Tommy. He is not touchy feely emotional guy. He is a teenager:
I think of him every day, I pray for his safety every day. I pray for a great future for him. I love him beyond measure. He is one of the tree people in this world I am willing to die for.
If we humans do all that, I can't imagine a God creating us and then abandoning us to be alone and afraid in this world. We are surrounded by Grace, all the time. But we don't acknowledge that; we don't respond to that.
We don't know how to immerse ourselves in that ocean of grace and thrive; we would rather barely survive in a scary world.
How do I know this God is going to protect me from all dangers?
To find that out, I turn my imagination towards the beginning of my life. I want you to join me in this fantasy tour; you can do it with you as the main character. I am 5.6 tall and weighs 167 pounds. There are about 75 trillion cells in this body. That is 75 with 13 zeroes! 75 million, million.
But this me standing before you, started out as a zygote, in a remote village in southern India. When I started, I was just 1 cell and each day, it multiplied exponentially and through an amazing process of miraculous metamorphosis and of meticulous manufacturing, I began to grow in my mother's womb. As weeks and months went by, I began to take shape. In the beginning I was just an undifferentiated mass of flesh. Hands had no fingers; legs had no toes; They were just stumps. Eyes had no lids; heart had no chambers.
Inside my mother's womb, God was at work. God was knitting me together. He made sure that I had a heart and it had four chambers;God made sure that the arteries and veins were properly attached. Then came the biggest project; the digestive system. It is four times longer than my height; Our digestive system, is about 24 feet long; but it stays so nicely tucked inside of us.
The mystery of my evolution in my mother's womb is that neither of my parents had to remember to do anything else after that night they came together. It is not like three months into her pregnancy, my mom said: Today is the day, the baby's lungs are made, I need to breath harder; or 6 months into her pregnancy, my dad said: “Today, he is going to get his legs; let me make sure he has two of them.”
No involvement; no participation; no planning; it all just happened with so much beauty and precision. Think about the first nine months of your life in your mother's womb. Do you remember worrying if God is going to give you one leg or two legs? Do you ever remember swimming in the amniotic fluid and wondering if God would remember to attach ten fingers to your hands? Were you anxious that God would remember to close your belly button and open your mouth at birth? Do you remember saying to yourself: “I hope my lungs that are flat like a pan cake will open up like a balloon when I come out.”
You didn't worry about any of that; you didn't become anxious about any of that. God, The creative force, the ground of your being, the alpha and the omega, took care of the entire process. And you came into this world perfectly beautiful. God was totally in charge; you totally relied on him during that time.
And I believe that providence and faithfulness of God never changes during the entire course of our lives. Because, God is constant in his affection for us. Jer 31:3 says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
Unlike human love which gets easily frustrated, turn fickle fast, suddenly fizzle and fade away, God's love for us is EVERLASTING, NO MATTER WHAT!
So, I live fearlessly, not because of promises pending, but because of promises kept.
I am not looking to the future with anxiety; I am looking at the past with gratitude.
I am not looking at the 75 trillion cells that I am today and worrying if some of them might divide fast and grow into cancer, but I am thinking of the single cell that I was, and how marvelously it turned out.
So life is not about being anxious and fearful, fighting and struggling; It is about trusting God, being in the moment and having a grateful heart.
Remember the words of Apostle Paul to Romans. He said: “All things will work together for the good, at the end.” Focus on two words: “together” and “end.” Don't give up in the middle because certain things may not be working out at a particular time in your life. We have to trust in the enduring faithfulness of God towards us.
There is a movie called, The Best Exotic Marigold hotel. In that movie, a group of retirees from England are looking into the option of moving to India because it is much cheaper. But they get angry frustrated, and impatient trying to adjust to the unfamiliar routines of living in a crowded city like Mumbai. Some of them wanted to quit and return home.
So the hero of the movie gave them this advise: “Everything will be alright at the end; if it is not alright,it is not the end.” He was echoing apostle Paul. He was right, because it worked out OK for all of them except for one lady who got frustratedly and angry, quit in the middle and returned to England.
British saint Julian of Norwich used to say: “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.” She did not say, all is well!
When you feel afraid of something or some one or feel anxious about a diagnosis, or worry about losing a job or something negative happening to you, or quitting in the middle of something, trust, trust and trust some more, because as Ann Lamott says: “The mystery of Grace is that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.”
What God told prophet Jeremiah gives me so much peace: “Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you.” Pondering that one phrase should be enough for a fearless life.
Let me end with these words of 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. This is God saying to Pascal:
“You would not seek Me if you had not already found Me, and you would not have found Me, if I had not found you first.”
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Sunday, July 19, 2015
LIVING JOYFULLY IN A CULTURE OF FEAR-Part One
When I was growing up in India, in the early sixties, I thought of America as this far away place with nice, white, rich people. The only Americans I was exposed to were tourists and missionaries and they were always nice, white and rich. We had no television and so I had no chance of seeing any other aspect of American life.
I visited the USA for the first time in 1983 and it was in Disney world: again, nice, mostly white, happy place, 32 years ago.
I began living here in 1988. I still remember catching a flight out of Toronto. I walked straight to the airline counter at the gate and got my boarding pass. There was no check points, no removing the shoes or belt, no suspicious look from TSA agents, no pat downs, no questions, no stress, it was a joy to fly. These days, I dread flying.
September 11, 2001 was a huge turning point in the history of this nation. It fundamentally changed the character of America from being a friendly, hospitable, amiable place to a fearful, hostile, anxious nation. After the initial stage of shock and grief, we as a nation went into an attack mode. We invaded Iraq with the intention of killing the terrorists before they killed us. Islamaphobia was added to the list of fears. Our phones began to be tapped. We were told to look at people with suspicion rather than trust; “See something, say something” became our national security slogan. Protecting the home land became a priority and we created a new department of home land security.
Guns sales have gone up by 300 percent in recent years. Everyone is afraid of someone or something. The sale of security cameras have gone up a 1000 percent. It is hard to find a place these days without cameras watching your every move.
If you watch TV or go on social media, you will see that the level of animosity, partisanship and hatred among people is extremely high. Suspicion, paranoia, hate mongering and name calling are rampant. The Charleston church massacre, the discussions about confederate flag, and the supreme court decision on marriage equality have cumulatively brought out the worst in some people.
Many people live with a disease called the “mean world syndrome.” That phrase was coined by George Gerbner, a researcher at the U of Penn. He found that since we witness so much bad news, on TV and social media, we come to believe that the world is a scary and ominous place filled with danger. As a result, our first reaction to people is suspicion not compassion; We live in fear rather than with the freedom of the children of God. We become an anxious people living in a besieged society. When we assume that we are always at “at risk” we will treat others as potential threats.
I have a friend—Jim—who always talks about the “risks of living in a crazy world.” So he uses so much modern technology to protect himself.
His latest gadget is a mini camera attached to the rear view mirror of his car. He purchased it mainly to record the outside because he was worried about two things: People who might scratch or dent his car and leave, because nobody saw it. He also wants to protect himself from drivers who might hit him and lie about it.
Jim has also installed 4 cameras to protect his house. When he is away from home, he watches his house on the app on his smart phone. He has Life-lock to protect his identity. He also has guns to protect his family from intruders and robbers. He always talks about the “rough world out there” and the “crazy people” who are “sick and dangerous.”
I don’t have any of the above “protections” and I have no desire to acquire them.
Life is so fragile and there is no man-made gadget that can protect you from all eventualities of life.
So I don't protect myself with man made gadgets. I refuse to live in fear, being paranoid about other humans. First of all, I refuse to label other humans, who are my brothers and sisters, as “crazy and dangerous.” As soon as you see others as crazy and dangerous, your brain activates the fight or flight response; your defenses go up. Your blood pressure rises; you become fearful and suspicious. That is no way to live.
I believe in divine protection and it works. What I mean by divine protection is not about a God “up there” protecting you from outside. It is the God within you acting as a defensive shield.
You might think I am nave and unsophisticated. Let me explain what it is and how it works…It is free, no equipment to buy and no installation required. No monthly service fee that has to be convenient charged to your credit card.
The equipment is already there. You were born into this world, pre-installed. It is called your soul or the image of God within you. You are created in the image and likeness of God. People repeat that phrase, but I doubt they know what it really means and how it applies in their daily lives.
In technical language, I call the image of God in us, the “divine app.” You don't have to install it but you have to use it. It is like the apps in your smart phone. I have about 122 apps on my phone. But I use only a few of them on a regular basis. The others are just there, and has no impact on my life except that they drain the battery.
The divine app is like that; everybody has one; but only few people are aware of it and even fewer people use it.
So, how do you activate your divine app also called the divine spark? First of all you have to believe that you have it.
When the divine spark is sparkling inside, two things happen: First, the spark in you removes the darkness around you and secondly, you see the spark in others. If you see another human being as a “divine spark” you are likely to be relaxed and free in his presence. On the other hand, if you label him “crazy,” “dangerous” or a sinner because he is homosexual” you are making the whole situation dark.
Seeing others as Divine spark is an inside job. What you see out there is a reflection of what is inside you. We see the world as we are, not as it is. Wayne Dyer puts it this way: “A happy person lives in a happy world, a miserable person lives in a miserable world.”
Imagine two houses in your neighborhood. One of them has light inside and outside. The other is totally dark. Which house do you think has more of a chance to be burglarized? It is a rhetorical question.
If your divine app is working, if your soul is sparkling, if your light is on, the likely hood of being attacked is very low.
How do we make the image of God glow within us? First of all, we have to use our brains to process our life and part of that processing is the removal of ignorance. According to Buddha, the root cause of all our suffering is ignorance. Ignorance about who we are, ignorance about who God is, and ignorance about what life is.
Look at how ignorance permeated so much discussion in social media about the supreme court ruling on marriage equality. A friend of mine was so angry and frustrated that he posted this: “In all the postings on FB, the massive amount of ink spilled on the internet and news papers about the subject of gay marriage, I have yet to hear anyone talking about the long term fall out of this decision....years down the road, when the children of gay couples grow up in these homes, there anger, confusion, and identity crisis....pity all the counselors, caseworkers, social workers, psychologists and pastors who have to pick up the broken pieces.”
That statement is mired in ignorance. There are about 9 million children in America living with gay parents. There is no study indicating that children growing up with gay parents are angry, confused and acting out any more than those being raised by heterosexual couples. Gay marriage has been legal in Masachussets since 2004. There is no study showing that kids living with gay parents in MA are acting out more and having identity crises more than kids in neighboring New Hampshire.If anything, those kids will be more happy and better adjusted because their parents don't have to live with anxiety and shame anymore.
The behavior of children raised in heterosexual homes is nothing to write home about. In fact, starting with Cain who killed his brother, and Hitler, and Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson, Osama bin Laden, the Oklahoma City bomber, the Colorado theater shooter, the Connecticut school shooter, the South Carolina church shooter—they were all raised by heterosexual parents...enough said.
Then there is the lament about how what we do hurts the heart of God—that God is going to punish America as he did to Sodom and Gomorrah. The notion that what we do hurts God is based on ignorance about who God is. Any God who gets easily hurt is not big enough to be God to begin with.
I think it is ignorant thinking that a God who has not punished us for dropping atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing 700,000 people, a God who has not punished us for killing a 150,000 Iraqis, a God who has not punished us for polluting his earth, a God who has not punished us for corporate greed, a God who has not punished us for massive gun violence, a god who hasn't punished us for having Donald Trump and the Kardasian sisters, is going to finally punish us for letting two men love each other!
I see this ignorance playing out in a commercial for Toyota cars. People from Publisher's Clearing House show up at this guy's door and tells him: “Congratulations, you are a winner” and presents him with a check for one million dollars. He looks at the check and says: “This is the 2nd best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Then he is given a special deal for a Toyota Corolla and he his is jumping with excitement. He says: “This is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Very often, we are like the guy in that commercial. We are created in the image and likeness of God. But we see it as the second best thing that has ever happened to us. We see ourselves first, as weak and unworthy sinners. God created the world and called it “good” six times, but we see it as the second best thing; we see it first as a “mean and nasty world.” God created other human beings as our brothers and sisters. We see them first as “crazy and dangerous.”
Fear and ignorance are related. The level of our fear is directly proportional to the level of our ignorance. Or, the level of our awakening is inversely proportional to the level of our ignorance. Put it another way, the more awakened you are, the less afraid you will be!
The other ignorance we need to remove is the belief that God is separate from us—that other humans are separate from us. “Separation theology” creates “separation sociology” which sees the world as a hostile place inhabited by crazy people whose main purpose is to hurt us. When I experience inter-connection and inter-dependence, I will see the other person as an extension of myself. It is ludicrous to think that “myself” is going to hurt “me.”
When I love everybody—men, women and children everywhere on this planet, all seven billion of them, regardless of their race, religion, color, sexual orientation and hold them in the embrace of my energy field, the invisible but real field of positive energy becomes impenetrable to negativity.
Apostle John says: “There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out fear. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1Jn: 4:18)
So, if you are a fearful person, you may be lacking in love, because fear and love are contradictory emotions.
Jesus repeatedly said to his disciples: “Be not afraid. Let not your hearts be troubled..trust in me and trust in my father.” These words that Jesus spoke to his frightened disciples 2000 years ago, is not a pious platitude but a promise guaranteed by his resurrection.
The Psalmist repeated that sentiment years before that: “The lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Even though I walk thru the shadow of he valley of death,I fear no evil for thou art with me.”
Apostle Paul echoed the same sentiment when he said to the Romans: “If God is with us who can be against us?” (8:31)
Paul is not talking about the distant God beyond the clouds.
The divine spark within you is God with you all the time, wherever you are.
Keep that spark sparkling and and it will serve as the best protective shield in all situations.
I visited the USA for the first time in 1983 and it was in Disney world: again, nice, mostly white, happy place, 32 years ago.
I began living here in 1988. I still remember catching a flight out of Toronto. I walked straight to the airline counter at the gate and got my boarding pass. There was no check points, no removing the shoes or belt, no suspicious look from TSA agents, no pat downs, no questions, no stress, it was a joy to fly. These days, I dread flying.
September 11, 2001 was a huge turning point in the history of this nation. It fundamentally changed the character of America from being a friendly, hospitable, amiable place to a fearful, hostile, anxious nation. After the initial stage of shock and grief, we as a nation went into an attack mode. We invaded Iraq with the intention of killing the terrorists before they killed us. Islamaphobia was added to the list of fears. Our phones began to be tapped. We were told to look at people with suspicion rather than trust; “See something, say something” became our national security slogan. Protecting the home land became a priority and we created a new department of home land security.
Guns sales have gone up by 300 percent in recent years. Everyone is afraid of someone or something. The sale of security cameras have gone up a 1000 percent. It is hard to find a place these days without cameras watching your every move.
If you watch TV or go on social media, you will see that the level of animosity, partisanship and hatred among people is extremely high. Suspicion, paranoia, hate mongering and name calling are rampant. The Charleston church massacre, the discussions about confederate flag, and the supreme court decision on marriage equality have cumulatively brought out the worst in some people.
Many people live with a disease called the “mean world syndrome.” That phrase was coined by George Gerbner, a researcher at the U of Penn. He found that since we witness so much bad news, on TV and social media, we come to believe that the world is a scary and ominous place filled with danger. As a result, our first reaction to people is suspicion not compassion; We live in fear rather than with the freedom of the children of God. We become an anxious people living in a besieged society. When we assume that we are always at “at risk” we will treat others as potential threats.
I have a friend—Jim—who always talks about the “risks of living in a crazy world.” So he uses so much modern technology to protect himself.
His latest gadget is a mini camera attached to the rear view mirror of his car. He purchased it mainly to record the outside because he was worried about two things: People who might scratch or dent his car and leave, because nobody saw it. He also wants to protect himself from drivers who might hit him and lie about it.
Jim has also installed 4 cameras to protect his house. When he is away from home, he watches his house on the app on his smart phone. He has Life-lock to protect his identity. He also has guns to protect his family from intruders and robbers. He always talks about the “rough world out there” and the “crazy people” who are “sick and dangerous.”
I don’t have any of the above “protections” and I have no desire to acquire them.
Life is so fragile and there is no man-made gadget that can protect you from all eventualities of life.
So I don't protect myself with man made gadgets. I refuse to live in fear, being paranoid about other humans. First of all, I refuse to label other humans, who are my brothers and sisters, as “crazy and dangerous.” As soon as you see others as crazy and dangerous, your brain activates the fight or flight response; your defenses go up. Your blood pressure rises; you become fearful and suspicious. That is no way to live.
I believe in divine protection and it works. What I mean by divine protection is not about a God “up there” protecting you from outside. It is the God within you acting as a defensive shield.
You might think I am nave and unsophisticated. Let me explain what it is and how it works…It is free, no equipment to buy and no installation required. No monthly service fee that has to be convenient charged to your credit card.
The equipment is already there. You were born into this world, pre-installed. It is called your soul or the image of God within you. You are created in the image and likeness of God. People repeat that phrase, but I doubt they know what it really means and how it applies in their daily lives.
In technical language, I call the image of God in us, the “divine app.” You don't have to install it but you have to use it. It is like the apps in your smart phone. I have about 122 apps on my phone. But I use only a few of them on a regular basis. The others are just there, and has no impact on my life except that they drain the battery.
The divine app is like that; everybody has one; but only few people are aware of it and even fewer people use it.
So, how do you activate your divine app also called the divine spark? First of all you have to believe that you have it.
When the divine spark is sparkling inside, two things happen: First, the spark in you removes the darkness around you and secondly, you see the spark in others. If you see another human being as a “divine spark” you are likely to be relaxed and free in his presence. On the other hand, if you label him “crazy,” “dangerous” or a sinner because he is homosexual” you are making the whole situation dark.
Seeing others as Divine spark is an inside job. What you see out there is a reflection of what is inside you. We see the world as we are, not as it is. Wayne Dyer puts it this way: “A happy person lives in a happy world, a miserable person lives in a miserable world.”
Imagine two houses in your neighborhood. One of them has light inside and outside. The other is totally dark. Which house do you think has more of a chance to be burglarized? It is a rhetorical question.
If your divine app is working, if your soul is sparkling, if your light is on, the likely hood of being attacked is very low.
How do we make the image of God glow within us? First of all, we have to use our brains to process our life and part of that processing is the removal of ignorance. According to Buddha, the root cause of all our suffering is ignorance. Ignorance about who we are, ignorance about who God is, and ignorance about what life is.
Look at how ignorance permeated so much discussion in social media about the supreme court ruling on marriage equality. A friend of mine was so angry and frustrated that he posted this: “In all the postings on FB, the massive amount of ink spilled on the internet and news papers about the subject of gay marriage, I have yet to hear anyone talking about the long term fall out of this decision....years down the road, when the children of gay couples grow up in these homes, there anger, confusion, and identity crisis....pity all the counselors, caseworkers, social workers, psychologists and pastors who have to pick up the broken pieces.”
That statement is mired in ignorance. There are about 9 million children in America living with gay parents. There is no study indicating that children growing up with gay parents are angry, confused and acting out any more than those being raised by heterosexual couples. Gay marriage has been legal in Masachussets since 2004. There is no study showing that kids living with gay parents in MA are acting out more and having identity crises more than kids in neighboring New Hampshire.If anything, those kids will be more happy and better adjusted because their parents don't have to live with anxiety and shame anymore.
The behavior of children raised in heterosexual homes is nothing to write home about. In fact, starting with Cain who killed his brother, and Hitler, and Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson, Osama bin Laden, the Oklahoma City bomber, the Colorado theater shooter, the Connecticut school shooter, the South Carolina church shooter—they were all raised by heterosexual parents...enough said.
Then there is the lament about how what we do hurts the heart of God—that God is going to punish America as he did to Sodom and Gomorrah. The notion that what we do hurts God is based on ignorance about who God is. Any God who gets easily hurt is not big enough to be God to begin with.
I think it is ignorant thinking that a God who has not punished us for dropping atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing 700,000 people, a God who has not punished us for killing a 150,000 Iraqis, a God who has not punished us for polluting his earth, a God who has not punished us for corporate greed, a God who has not punished us for massive gun violence, a god who hasn't punished us for having Donald Trump and the Kardasian sisters, is going to finally punish us for letting two men love each other!
I see this ignorance playing out in a commercial for Toyota cars. People from Publisher's Clearing House show up at this guy's door and tells him: “Congratulations, you are a winner” and presents him with a check for one million dollars. He looks at the check and says: “This is the 2nd best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Then he is given a special deal for a Toyota Corolla and he his is jumping with excitement. He says: “This is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Very often, we are like the guy in that commercial. We are created in the image and likeness of God. But we see it as the second best thing that has ever happened to us. We see ourselves first, as weak and unworthy sinners. God created the world and called it “good” six times, but we see it as the second best thing; we see it first as a “mean and nasty world.” God created other human beings as our brothers and sisters. We see them first as “crazy and dangerous.”
Fear and ignorance are related. The level of our fear is directly proportional to the level of our ignorance. Or, the level of our awakening is inversely proportional to the level of our ignorance. Put it another way, the more awakened you are, the less afraid you will be!
The other ignorance we need to remove is the belief that God is separate from us—that other humans are separate from us. “Separation theology” creates “separation sociology” which sees the world as a hostile place inhabited by crazy people whose main purpose is to hurt us. When I experience inter-connection and inter-dependence, I will see the other person as an extension of myself. It is ludicrous to think that “myself” is going to hurt “me.”
When I love everybody—men, women and children everywhere on this planet, all seven billion of them, regardless of their race, religion, color, sexual orientation and hold them in the embrace of my energy field, the invisible but real field of positive energy becomes impenetrable to negativity.
Apostle John says: “There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out fear. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1Jn: 4:18)
So, if you are a fearful person, you may be lacking in love, because fear and love are contradictory emotions.
Jesus repeatedly said to his disciples: “Be not afraid. Let not your hearts be troubled..trust in me and trust in my father.” These words that Jesus spoke to his frightened disciples 2000 years ago, is not a pious platitude but a promise guaranteed by his resurrection.
The Psalmist repeated that sentiment years before that: “The lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Even though I walk thru the shadow of he valley of death,I fear no evil for thou art with me.”
Apostle Paul echoed the same sentiment when he said to the Romans: “If God is with us who can be against us?” (8:31)
Paul is not talking about the distant God beyond the clouds.
The divine spark within you is God with you all the time, wherever you are.
Keep that spark sparkling and and it will serve as the best protective shield in all situations.
Saturday, May 30, 2015
LOVE HANDLES
For a split seismic second, my soon-to-be Medicare-age male ego fluttered, flushed and felt faintly flattered—and flattened fast. I knew that the bikini-clad pictures the woman was texting me were not meant for me. It was an electronic error of a grieving widow who felt moribund and mortified about sending them to the priest who had conducted the memorial service for her husband two days earlier.
Jenny’s husband Jerry was 50 years old when he died of liver cancer. She honored him with a memorial service for his friends and family. The day after the service, I received a text from Jenny: “Thank you so much, pastor Paul for the service on Saturday. It was spiritual and touching; Jerry would have liked it.”
And I texted back: “Thank you Jenny. Glad to be able to help. I pray that God and Jerry’s angel help you move forward.”
That was it. I had moved forward.
The next day I received two photos of Jenny in bikini with a message in Spanish: Tengo q bajar los gorditos,jijiji. (I have to lose my love-handles,hahaha). My Spanish-ignorant brain thought it was something naughty.
Instantly, I showed the text and the pictures to my wife Judy, because I had nothing to hide. It is always a safe thing to do, to prove your innocence and maintain marital peace. I was as surprised as she was. Judy looked up the Spanish dictionary to find out the meaning of the message. It was innocent. Jenny was talking about getting rid of her love handles. I had a sigh of relief especially for Jenny’s sake.
Just as I had suspected, it was a misdirected text. While we were looking up the Spanish dictionary, my phone rang. It was Jenny. Her voice was quivering. She apologized profusely for sending those pictures to me. I allayed her anxiety and told her: “Don’t worry about it; this happens all the time; it was an innocent mistake; don’t be too hard on yourself; I just deleted them; be at peace.”
I told her about my faux pas, once sending a text message to my female boss: “Will pick you up after work and let us go for dinner first and for shopping later.” Of course, it was meant for my wife, but in my hurried, not-paying-attention-mode, I sent it to my boss. We both laughed out loud about our embarrassing electronic errors. Jenny was relieved that I didn’t mishandle the situation.
Jenny had texted the pictures to her girl friend, inviting her to go to the pool to exercise so that she can get rid of her love handles. . Since she didn’t hear back from her friend for hours, she wondered if she had gotten the message. So Jenny went back to her phone and checked and she almost fainted when she realized that the text had gone to my phone. She told me that she was sweating bullets before calling me. She was embarrassed and ashamed about sending her pictures in beach attire to a priest, especially a priest whom she had met once, who had just officiated a memorial service for her deceased husband.
The Information super highway is a good place to travel. It takes you to your destinations fast and easy. But, like any speed-way, wrecks are common and some of them can be deadly. Jenny’s was not.
It is always a good policy not to send any pictures to anybody unless it is a picture that you don’t mind the public to see. We also need to be extremely careful about what we write in our texts and emails. Unlike on a paper where we can go back and erase, correct and control, electronic transmissions, once the “send” button is clicked, are beyond your control. The unintended consequences of a hurried message or an image sent carelessly or in anger, can be unpredictable and sometimes, even dangerous.
Pay attention; be alert; take a deep breath; slow down. Take an extra second, and check twice before you click that “send” button on your electronic devices. It can save a lot of grief.
Jenny’s husband Jerry was 50 years old when he died of liver cancer. She honored him with a memorial service for his friends and family. The day after the service, I received a text from Jenny: “Thank you so much, pastor Paul for the service on Saturday. It was spiritual and touching; Jerry would have liked it.”
And I texted back: “Thank you Jenny. Glad to be able to help. I pray that God and Jerry’s angel help you move forward.”
That was it. I had moved forward.
The next day I received two photos of Jenny in bikini with a message in Spanish: Tengo q bajar los gorditos,jijiji. (I have to lose my love-handles,hahaha). My Spanish-ignorant brain thought it was something naughty.
Instantly, I showed the text and the pictures to my wife Judy, because I had nothing to hide. It is always a safe thing to do, to prove your innocence and maintain marital peace. I was as surprised as she was. Judy looked up the Spanish dictionary to find out the meaning of the message. It was innocent. Jenny was talking about getting rid of her love handles. I had a sigh of relief especially for Jenny’s sake.
Just as I had suspected, it was a misdirected text. While we were looking up the Spanish dictionary, my phone rang. It was Jenny. Her voice was quivering. She apologized profusely for sending those pictures to me. I allayed her anxiety and told her: “Don’t worry about it; this happens all the time; it was an innocent mistake; don’t be too hard on yourself; I just deleted them; be at peace.”
I told her about my faux pas, once sending a text message to my female boss: “Will pick you up after work and let us go for dinner first and for shopping later.” Of course, it was meant for my wife, but in my hurried, not-paying-attention-mode, I sent it to my boss. We both laughed out loud about our embarrassing electronic errors. Jenny was relieved that I didn’t mishandle the situation.
Jenny had texted the pictures to her girl friend, inviting her to go to the pool to exercise so that she can get rid of her love handles. . Since she didn’t hear back from her friend for hours, she wondered if she had gotten the message. So Jenny went back to her phone and checked and she almost fainted when she realized that the text had gone to my phone. She told me that she was sweating bullets before calling me. She was embarrassed and ashamed about sending her pictures in beach attire to a priest, especially a priest whom she had met once, who had just officiated a memorial service for her deceased husband.
The Information super highway is a good place to travel. It takes you to your destinations fast and easy. But, like any speed-way, wrecks are common and some of them can be deadly. Jenny’s was not.
It is always a good policy not to send any pictures to anybody unless it is a picture that you don’t mind the public to see. We also need to be extremely careful about what we write in our texts and emails. Unlike on a paper where we can go back and erase, correct and control, electronic transmissions, once the “send” button is clicked, are beyond your control. The unintended consequences of a hurried message or an image sent carelessly or in anger, can be unpredictable and sometimes, even dangerous.
Pay attention; be alert; take a deep breath; slow down. Take an extra second, and check twice before you click that “send” button on your electronic devices. It can save a lot of grief.
Monday, May 18, 2015
IT DEPENDS
During a talk at a church in Miami Lakes, two years ago, I asked a question: “Is it wrong to to be romantically involved with another person, while still being married to your spouse?
The room erupted in a collective gasp. They couldn't believe that I would ask such a question.
Slowly the group members began to respond. “The answer is Yes, that would be morally wrong” said one. “That is called adultery in my book,”said another. “Get a divorce first” another. Someone said, “It's OK if your wife gives you permission.” The consensus of the group was that it is the wrong thing to do. “Immoral, cruel, selfish, cheating” were some of the other words used to describe such a behavior.
What is your answer Paul, asked someone and I said: “It depends.”
Another gasp in the room. They couldn't believe their ears. Some of them thought I had drifted off the moral rails and fallen into a sludge of sin. You may be thinking that right now. I don't blame you, because “it depends” is at the outset, a “wishy-washy” answer. It sounds like an appallingly responsible answer when marital fidelity is in question, especially coming from a man of the cloth.
Before you judge me any further, hear me out: Let me tell you a story.
Jim and Jill were hospice patients on my team. They were residents of an Alzheimer’s unit in an Assisted Living Facility. They were among the twenty five patients living in a locked unit. They are mostly bed ridden, but sometimes they sit in their wheel chairs. They were in their early seventies and they have been diagnosed over five years. They were non-verbal but sometimes responded to a squeeze on the arm with a weak smile. They sit in their wheel chairs for hours, staring at the bare walls of the facility. Their daily routine mostly consists of three meals a day, three diaper changes and mostly sleep. One caregiver described her father as an “eating, pooping, sleeping machine.”
Alzheimers is one one hardest diseases to watch. It is a progressively degenerative disease that can be long and drawn out. As the patient goes through the ravages of the disease, it can take a huge toll on the caregivers. Alzheimers afflicts the individual patient, but affects the entire family. There is a book called The 36 hour day describing the challenges and hardships of caring for Alzheimers patients. The title says it all.
Jim and Jill had devoted spouses. Jim’s wife, Maria visited three or four times a week. She also attended the support group for spouses on Thursdays. They have been married for 54 years. Maria grieved the loss of her “amazing husband” to this “wretched disease.” Their plan of retiring together and traveling were all dashed. She felt like a crypt-widow among her couple friends, because, for all practical purposes, her husband was “dead’ but not exactly. After every visit, Maria returned to an empty home with a lonely heart.
Jill's husband, Matt is also a very devoted spouse. They have been married for 57 years. Jill had an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s at age 63. Matt took care of his wife in the house with assistance from round-the-clock aides for ten years before placing her in the Alzheimer's unit. He was not too happy to do that, but caring for his wife in the house became emotionally stressful and financially unfeasible. He would visit daily, sit next to her, holding her hands. He would talk to her tenderly, stroke her hair gently and whisper, “I love you honey” into her ears, before the parting kiss. Matt always talked about the wonderful life they had before the disease struck her.
Maria’s and Matt’s paths crossed several times while they were visiting their spouses. They attended the same support group. They were experiencing the same loss; they were fighting the same enemy; they were undergoing the same crisis; they spoke the same language; they felt the same pain; they were on the same ground; they traveled the same road; they swam in the same emotional ocean; they were in the same proverbial boat!
Their agonizing stories of loss and pain brought them together. After the support group meeting on Thursdays, they went out for coffee together; then it was dinner together and walks on the beach two miles away from Facility where their respective spouses lived.
Matt was a realist. He talked about his wife being no more present in Jill. “She is existing, not living” he told me. He must have been rationalizing to assuage any sense of guilt he might have had for being close to another woman while his wife was still alive.
Maria too had her moments of guilt but she assuaged them by thinking that if the shoe were on the other foot, her husband would not have behaved any differently than what she was doing.
On September 18, 2010, Maria’s husband died. I officiated at the funeral. Matt was at the service comforting Maria. Matt's wife, Jill, died the same year on December 3rd. She was cremated. I had the privilege of doing a memorial service for her in the club house at Matt's condo.
Few months after the death of their respective spouses, Maria sold her house and moved in with Matt.
In January 2012, I received a phone call from Matt. “Guess what chaplain Paul, Maria and I are thinking about getting married and we want you to marry us; you know our story more than anyone else.”
I was delighted that two souls had found each other again…that their common pain had brought them together and their lives—what is left of it—does not have to be lived in isolation and loneliness.
On March 18, 2012, I officiated the marriage of Matt and Maria near the Deer field Beach pier surrounded by their immediate family.
Matt was 82 and Maria was 78. While signing their marriage license, Matt and Maria might have been signing on to a new lease on their lives—and seeing the light of love again, at the end of the dark tunnel of illness, suffering, sadness and loss.
Life is very often, messy, complex and complicated. Most life situations are mired in mystery, riddled with difficult choices and pulled in different directions by competing claims and dilemmas. None of us will ever fully know what another person is going through, what challenges they are facing, what hardships they are enduring, or what pain they are experiencing. That is why Jesus said: “Do not judge and you will not be judged; Do no condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.”
Apostle Paul repeats that advise in his letter to the Romans: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.”
I think “it depends” is a good phrase to remember when faced with the quandaries and mysteries of life.
We live in a world where, most people see life as black and white. Living in the gray area is very uncomfortable for many. They want an “yes or no” answer to their questions. “It depends” is not an acceptable answer. According to them, abortion is always wrong; gay marriage should never be allowed; it is against the sanctify of marriage. Children should have both a mother and a father. They forget that the “sanctity of marriage” is callously disgraced in 50% of cases due to divorce. They forget that 45 percent of children in this country grow up in single parent homes. They forget that King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
According to them, living in the gray area of life is being morally lax and, responding to life's questions with “it depends” is a wishy-washy approach.
If so, Jesus is the most morally lax and wishy-washy person who ever lived.
Jesus rarely gave a straightforward answer to any question. When the Pharisees asked “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” he did not say pay taxes or don't pay taxes. He asked them to bring a coin. Instead of answering yes or no, he asked them a question: “Whose portrait is it? “Cesar's,” they replied. And Jesus said: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's”-- an open answer that can be broadly interpreted.
Let us look at the story of the woman caught in adultery brought before Jesus. (John 8). The Pharisees gathered around the woman with stones in their hands, ready to stone her to death. They wanted an Yes or No answer from Jesus. If Jesus had said: “Yes, go ahead and stone her,” they could brand him a heartless, cruel man. If he had said, No, they could accuse him of not following the law.
The law is clear. Leviticus 20: 10 and Deuteronomy 22.22 says the same thing: “If a man commits adultery with another man's wife both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”
It would have been so easy for Jesus to quote the law, answer the question and get out of there.
But, what did Jesus say: At first, he says nothing; he gives no answer. “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.” By not giving them a right or wrong answer, Jesus must have been encouraging them to think about the situation a little.
Think about why is it always the woman's fault? Why didn't they catch the man involved in this event? Where is he? How could they forget that Abram committed adultery with his maid-servant from which Ismail was born? How could they ignore that king David committed adultery with his soldier's wife and he was not stoned. How could they forget that Solomon had 700 concubines? Is this one poor woman more guilty than any of those men? Or is it because they are all men in powerful positions? There are so many questions and issues to consider before stoning a woman to death. Jesus must have been thinking about all that! Jesus was forcing the Pharisees to stretch their minds to see the facts and open their hearts towards compassion.
If you read the story, you will see that Jesus was not going to give an answer at all. But the Pharisees were persistent. When they kept on questioning him” he said to them:
“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone...” and we know what happened. That was an “it depends answer” an answer that led to profound soul searching for the Pharisees and everyone one put their stones down and quietly left, leaving the woman alone.
The story reminds me of Pope Francis' response to the question about homosexuality. He said: “Who am I to judge? It is such a departure from his predecessor. Pope Benedict who was so sure about how bad it is. He said: “ homosexuality is intrinsically disordered.”
How about this one? While Jesus was teaching, some one asked him: (Lk: 13) “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? He did not answer that question like a Jehovah's witness. According to them only 144,000 will be saved when the rapture happens. He did not answer like an evangelical preacher. According to him, only those who believe in Jesus will be saved. This is the answer Jesus gave:
“People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.” It is a very open ended, general, wishy-washy answer. The phrase east and west, north and south, means there are no national, religious, ethnic or cultural boundaries. There are no requirements, qualifications, or credentials needed to sit at the feast in the kingdom of God.
When it comes to salvation, many people can't handle that answer. They want a clear-cut answer, a definite answer. Are you going to be saved or not? Few years ago, while discussing this issue in a Bible class, one lady said “I don't want to go a heaven where everybody else goes.” She was so sure that she was going to heaven, but her Muslim neighbor was not.
And then Jesus adds this line to the answer about people coming from east and west: “Indeed there are those who are last who will be first and first who will be last.” That is a bombshell statement that shakes the very foundation of human calculations, assumptions, presumptions and planning. We think that if we work hard, believe the right things, play by the rules, we should be rewarded. Not necessarily, it depends...
Before the crucifixion, Pilate asked a question to Jesus: “Are you the king of the Jews?” (J 18). He didn't answer yes or no. Instead, Jesus asked Pilate: “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me? Then Pilate asked: “What is it that you have done? Again, there is no clear answer from Jesus: He said:”My kingdom is not of this world? Pilate was so frustrated with Jesus that he was not answering any of this questions with a yes or a no.
At the end Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth”? He didn't even wait for an answer from Jesus, because, he knew he was not going to get one,because it is such a loaded question.
What is truth? What is the truth about life, death, life after death? What is the truth about other people's lives and what they may be going through in any particular moment? What is the truth about why people do what they do”?
We think we know, but we don't. We pass judgments based on what we think and know, but our thinking could be so off base and our knowledge could be incomplete or wrong.
Always remember that absolute answers are available only in areas science and math. For example if you add two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen you will get a molecule of water; you can do that in Australia, Alaska or Alabama, the result will be the same. Or you add 2 and 4 the result will be 4, be that in India, Indonesia or Indianapolis. By the way, I have to tell you that a friend of mine once told me that 2 and 2 does not add up to 4 always. “It depends” he said, and I asked: “How come?” And he said, “it depends if I am buying or selling. If I am buying it is 3 and if I am selling it is 4.” So, even in math, nothing is absolute!
The point is that, please know that life does not neatly fit into any scientific or mathematical formula. Life is messy and it rarely fits any precalculated patterns. Have the humility to admit that we know very little and the little we know could be wrong.
Socrates was one of the smartest philosophers of all time. His favorite saying was:
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
As disciples, we are called to be like Jesus. Thinking like Socrates is not bad either.
We are called to put on the mind of Christ? What is a Christ-like mind?
It is open, flexible, loving, gentle, generous, compassionate, non judgmental, forgiving and unconditionally loving.
Let us pray:
Lord help us to stretch our minds and hearts to the four corners of the earth to include all our brothers and sisters in our circle of concern. Make us realize that our knowledge is incomplete, our vision is limited, our opinions are biased, and our viewpoints are only views from a point. Help us resist the temptation to judge people without knowing the facts and make our hearts compassionate enough to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Inspire us to replace our narrow, limited, biased minds with the generous, flexible and non-judgmental mind of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
The room erupted in a collective gasp. They couldn't believe that I would ask such a question.
Slowly the group members began to respond. “The answer is Yes, that would be morally wrong” said one. “That is called adultery in my book,”said another. “Get a divorce first” another. Someone said, “It's OK if your wife gives you permission.” The consensus of the group was that it is the wrong thing to do. “Immoral, cruel, selfish, cheating” were some of the other words used to describe such a behavior.
What is your answer Paul, asked someone and I said: “It depends.”
Another gasp in the room. They couldn't believe their ears. Some of them thought I had drifted off the moral rails and fallen into a sludge of sin. You may be thinking that right now. I don't blame you, because “it depends” is at the outset, a “wishy-washy” answer. It sounds like an appallingly responsible answer when marital fidelity is in question, especially coming from a man of the cloth.
Before you judge me any further, hear me out: Let me tell you a story.
Jim and Jill were hospice patients on my team. They were residents of an Alzheimer’s unit in an Assisted Living Facility. They were among the twenty five patients living in a locked unit. They are mostly bed ridden, but sometimes they sit in their wheel chairs. They were in their early seventies and they have been diagnosed over five years. They were non-verbal but sometimes responded to a squeeze on the arm with a weak smile. They sit in their wheel chairs for hours, staring at the bare walls of the facility. Their daily routine mostly consists of three meals a day, three diaper changes and mostly sleep. One caregiver described her father as an “eating, pooping, sleeping machine.”
Alzheimers is one one hardest diseases to watch. It is a progressively degenerative disease that can be long and drawn out. As the patient goes through the ravages of the disease, it can take a huge toll on the caregivers. Alzheimers afflicts the individual patient, but affects the entire family. There is a book called The 36 hour day describing the challenges and hardships of caring for Alzheimers patients. The title says it all.
Jim and Jill had devoted spouses. Jim’s wife, Maria visited three or four times a week. She also attended the support group for spouses on Thursdays. They have been married for 54 years. Maria grieved the loss of her “amazing husband” to this “wretched disease.” Their plan of retiring together and traveling were all dashed. She felt like a crypt-widow among her couple friends, because, for all practical purposes, her husband was “dead’ but not exactly. After every visit, Maria returned to an empty home with a lonely heart.
Jill's husband, Matt is also a very devoted spouse. They have been married for 57 years. Jill had an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s at age 63. Matt took care of his wife in the house with assistance from round-the-clock aides for ten years before placing her in the Alzheimer's unit. He was not too happy to do that, but caring for his wife in the house became emotionally stressful and financially unfeasible. He would visit daily, sit next to her, holding her hands. He would talk to her tenderly, stroke her hair gently and whisper, “I love you honey” into her ears, before the parting kiss. Matt always talked about the wonderful life they had before the disease struck her.
Maria’s and Matt’s paths crossed several times while they were visiting their spouses. They attended the same support group. They were experiencing the same loss; they were fighting the same enemy; they were undergoing the same crisis; they spoke the same language; they felt the same pain; they were on the same ground; they traveled the same road; they swam in the same emotional ocean; they were in the same proverbial boat!
Their agonizing stories of loss and pain brought them together. After the support group meeting on Thursdays, they went out for coffee together; then it was dinner together and walks on the beach two miles away from Facility where their respective spouses lived.
Matt was a realist. He talked about his wife being no more present in Jill. “She is existing, not living” he told me. He must have been rationalizing to assuage any sense of guilt he might have had for being close to another woman while his wife was still alive.
Maria too had her moments of guilt but she assuaged them by thinking that if the shoe were on the other foot, her husband would not have behaved any differently than what she was doing.
On September 18, 2010, Maria’s husband died. I officiated at the funeral. Matt was at the service comforting Maria. Matt's wife, Jill, died the same year on December 3rd. She was cremated. I had the privilege of doing a memorial service for her in the club house at Matt's condo.
Few months after the death of their respective spouses, Maria sold her house and moved in with Matt.
In January 2012, I received a phone call from Matt. “Guess what chaplain Paul, Maria and I are thinking about getting married and we want you to marry us; you know our story more than anyone else.”
I was delighted that two souls had found each other again…that their common pain had brought them together and their lives—what is left of it—does not have to be lived in isolation and loneliness.
On March 18, 2012, I officiated the marriage of Matt and Maria near the Deer field Beach pier surrounded by their immediate family.
Matt was 82 and Maria was 78. While signing their marriage license, Matt and Maria might have been signing on to a new lease on their lives—and seeing the light of love again, at the end of the dark tunnel of illness, suffering, sadness and loss.
Life is very often, messy, complex and complicated. Most life situations are mired in mystery, riddled with difficult choices and pulled in different directions by competing claims and dilemmas. None of us will ever fully know what another person is going through, what challenges they are facing, what hardships they are enduring, or what pain they are experiencing. That is why Jesus said: “Do not judge and you will not be judged; Do no condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.”
Apostle Paul repeats that advise in his letter to the Romans: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.”
I think “it depends” is a good phrase to remember when faced with the quandaries and mysteries of life.
We live in a world where, most people see life as black and white. Living in the gray area is very uncomfortable for many. They want an “yes or no” answer to their questions. “It depends” is not an acceptable answer. According to them, abortion is always wrong; gay marriage should never be allowed; it is against the sanctify of marriage. Children should have both a mother and a father. They forget that the “sanctity of marriage” is callously disgraced in 50% of cases due to divorce. They forget that 45 percent of children in this country grow up in single parent homes. They forget that King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
According to them, living in the gray area of life is being morally lax and, responding to life's questions with “it depends” is a wishy-washy approach.
If so, Jesus is the most morally lax and wishy-washy person who ever lived.
Jesus rarely gave a straightforward answer to any question. When the Pharisees asked “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” he did not say pay taxes or don't pay taxes. He asked them to bring a coin. Instead of answering yes or no, he asked them a question: “Whose portrait is it? “Cesar's,” they replied. And Jesus said: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's”-- an open answer that can be broadly interpreted.
Let us look at the story of the woman caught in adultery brought before Jesus. (John 8). The Pharisees gathered around the woman with stones in their hands, ready to stone her to death. They wanted an Yes or No answer from Jesus. If Jesus had said: “Yes, go ahead and stone her,” they could brand him a heartless, cruel man. If he had said, No, they could accuse him of not following the law.
The law is clear. Leviticus 20: 10 and Deuteronomy 22.22 says the same thing: “If a man commits adultery with another man's wife both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”
It would have been so easy for Jesus to quote the law, answer the question and get out of there.
But, what did Jesus say: At first, he says nothing; he gives no answer. “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.” By not giving them a right or wrong answer, Jesus must have been encouraging them to think about the situation a little.
Think about why is it always the woman's fault? Why didn't they catch the man involved in this event? Where is he? How could they forget that Abram committed adultery with his maid-servant from which Ismail was born? How could they ignore that king David committed adultery with his soldier's wife and he was not stoned. How could they forget that Solomon had 700 concubines? Is this one poor woman more guilty than any of those men? Or is it because they are all men in powerful positions? There are so many questions and issues to consider before stoning a woman to death. Jesus must have been thinking about all that! Jesus was forcing the Pharisees to stretch their minds to see the facts and open their hearts towards compassion.
If you read the story, you will see that Jesus was not going to give an answer at all. But the Pharisees were persistent. When they kept on questioning him” he said to them:
“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone...” and we know what happened. That was an “it depends answer” an answer that led to profound soul searching for the Pharisees and everyone one put their stones down and quietly left, leaving the woman alone.
The story reminds me of Pope Francis' response to the question about homosexuality. He said: “Who am I to judge? It is such a departure from his predecessor. Pope Benedict who was so sure about how bad it is. He said: “ homosexuality is intrinsically disordered.”
How about this one? While Jesus was teaching, some one asked him: (Lk: 13) “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? He did not answer that question like a Jehovah's witness. According to them only 144,000 will be saved when the rapture happens. He did not answer like an evangelical preacher. According to him, only those who believe in Jesus will be saved. This is the answer Jesus gave:
“People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.” It is a very open ended, general, wishy-washy answer. The phrase east and west, north and south, means there are no national, religious, ethnic or cultural boundaries. There are no requirements, qualifications, or credentials needed to sit at the feast in the kingdom of God.
When it comes to salvation, many people can't handle that answer. They want a clear-cut answer, a definite answer. Are you going to be saved or not? Few years ago, while discussing this issue in a Bible class, one lady said “I don't want to go a heaven where everybody else goes.” She was so sure that she was going to heaven, but her Muslim neighbor was not.
And then Jesus adds this line to the answer about people coming from east and west: “Indeed there are those who are last who will be first and first who will be last.” That is a bombshell statement that shakes the very foundation of human calculations, assumptions, presumptions and planning. We think that if we work hard, believe the right things, play by the rules, we should be rewarded. Not necessarily, it depends...
Before the crucifixion, Pilate asked a question to Jesus: “Are you the king of the Jews?” (J 18). He didn't answer yes or no. Instead, Jesus asked Pilate: “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me? Then Pilate asked: “What is it that you have done? Again, there is no clear answer from Jesus: He said:”My kingdom is not of this world? Pilate was so frustrated with Jesus that he was not answering any of this questions with a yes or a no.
At the end Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth”? He didn't even wait for an answer from Jesus, because, he knew he was not going to get one,because it is such a loaded question.
What is truth? What is the truth about life, death, life after death? What is the truth about other people's lives and what they may be going through in any particular moment? What is the truth about why people do what they do”?
We think we know, but we don't. We pass judgments based on what we think and know, but our thinking could be so off base and our knowledge could be incomplete or wrong.
Always remember that absolute answers are available only in areas science and math. For example if you add two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen you will get a molecule of water; you can do that in Australia, Alaska or Alabama, the result will be the same. Or you add 2 and 4 the result will be 4, be that in India, Indonesia or Indianapolis. By the way, I have to tell you that a friend of mine once told me that 2 and 2 does not add up to 4 always. “It depends” he said, and I asked: “How come?” And he said, “it depends if I am buying or selling. If I am buying it is 3 and if I am selling it is 4.” So, even in math, nothing is absolute!
The point is that, please know that life does not neatly fit into any scientific or mathematical formula. Life is messy and it rarely fits any precalculated patterns. Have the humility to admit that we know very little and the little we know could be wrong.
Socrates was one of the smartest philosophers of all time. His favorite saying was:
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
As disciples, we are called to be like Jesus. Thinking like Socrates is not bad either.
We are called to put on the mind of Christ? What is a Christ-like mind?
It is open, flexible, loving, gentle, generous, compassionate, non judgmental, forgiving and unconditionally loving.
Let us pray:
Lord help us to stretch our minds and hearts to the four corners of the earth to include all our brothers and sisters in our circle of concern. Make us realize that our knowledge is incomplete, our vision is limited, our opinions are biased, and our viewpoints are only views from a point. Help us resist the temptation to judge people without knowing the facts and make our hearts compassionate enough to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Inspire us to replace our narrow, limited, biased minds with the generous, flexible and non-judgmental mind of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
MY TWO MOTHERS
First of all, I like to wish all the mothers here a very happy Mother's day. Did you know that MD is the biggest celebration in the US, more than Christmas and Val day combined, when flower shops, restaurants and hallmark make the most money. Because, everyone does not celebrate Christmas, and everyone does not have a BF, GF or a spouse, but every one has a mother.
MD, however, is not a holy day in the church's calendar and pastors usually shy away from preaching about it for fear of hurting feelings. For example, there are people who were abused or abandoned by their mothers. The last thing they want to hear is nice things about someone who was not nice. Then there are others who have wanted , prayed and waited to become mothers, without success, and carry wounds of deferred dreams.
Suddenly, what seems so simple and profoundly important becomes an uneasy celebration. Our concern for the wounded, often leads us to forgo the rejoicing. I feel that we must celebrate this day, because, as scripture says, we must rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
Our rejoicing should always be combined with compassion-and this applies to all situations in life. For example, look at what is happening in the world these days, especially the earthquake in Nepal. We must weep with the people of Nepal and help them with our prayers and our purses, but we don't have to be unhappy about our blessings.
Besides, I am not going to just talk about our biological mother. I invite you to expand your consciousness about motherhood today: to think about mother in a larger context.
Let me start with a question: ..Is there anyone here with more than one mother? Well I have 4 mothers. Bio mom, mother country, mother Mary..Jesus on cross pointing to Mary at foot of the cross told John: behold your mother..Only speak about bio mom and mother earth.
My mom died a year and half ago 92.
I have the greatest admiration and love for my mom, because, I am who am, largely because of her. She carried me in her womb for 9 months. She made sure that I was nourished and protected. It was not an easy task, esp. in the India of early 50s. Our house was in the middle of a farm. It was a two bedroom house, with cement floor, and thatched roof—for 7 of us and there was no indoor plumbing. And we had no electricity. Here when we loose power for a few hours or few days due to a hurricane or a downed line, we panic. Imagine having no electricity for life....
At night, the whole place was pitch dark, except for the hurricane lamps which gave a faint light for about three feet radius. We had no crib or real beds. We slept on mats, not mattress. We used to fold the mats in the morning so that the room we slept in can be used as living and dining room during the day.
Sanitation was not great. Cockroaches, ants and lizards freely roamed inside the house.. But my mother made sure that I was not bitten by them and took good care of me so that I grew up in one piece with all the limbs intact.
Also, infant mortality rate was high in those days. But my mom, and of course, my dad, made sure that I survived. I lost two siblings, one older and one younger than and each lived for only less than a month.
My mother was a strict disciplinarian. She would not allow me to play with the boys in the neighborhood, because, she thought that they would lead me astray. She would not allow me to go for movies, because she thought the movies would be bad influence.
I did not like my mom for that, at that time. But looking back, I am grateful, because, she did the best she could, to protect me and keep me safe. We should never judge a situation in our past with today's awareness and yard sticks.
Motherhood means sharing in the creative power of God: Conceiving, carrying and giving birth to a human being is as close as any person can come to the act of creation. That is the beginning of motherhood, but it is far from the end: motherhood is also nurturing, sacrificing, unconditionally loving and ultimately letting go.
There may be exceptions to this love, mothers who abuse, or abandon their children, but the ideal motherhood, is a divine vocation. That is why a wise man once said: God created mothers, because he couldn't be everywhere.” A Muslim prophet put it so well when he said: “Paradise is at the feet of a mother.”
I like to talk about my second mother-mother earth. Earth day was just two weeks ago. Again pastors don't usually preach about earth day,because it is considered a worldly topic. I think it should be a holy day..
Just like I came out of my mother's body, I came out of this earth. Todays's scripture, Psalmm 139 says: “You knit me together in my mother's womb” and “You knew me when I was woven toegther in depths of the earth,” thus making a beautiful connecton between the mother's womb and the womb of th earth.
We have this notion that we came ON the earth; It appears like that; but the truth of the matter is that we came OUT of the earth. We are made of the dust of the earth. Just like we share genes and chromosomes, flesh and blood with our mothers, we share all the elements with mother earth; Elements like carbon, hydrogen, calcium, iron that are in the earth's body are also in our body. The earth is 70 percent water ; we are 70 percent water.
I often think about the unfathomable beauty, mystery and magnificence of this moving blue dot in space which holds me up tenderly in the palm of her hands as my mother once did.
Like a mother, the earth gives us so much and demands so little. So, on this mother's day, I invite you to develop a special love and reverence for mother earth, this beautiful tiny planet in this majestic cosmos, on which we are blessed to live.
I have lived on this earth for 23,178 days and it has never failed to provide for me: air, water, and food, the three most basic ingredients needed for my very existence. Thank you holy mother earth.
I have never stayed awake at night, wondering and worrying if there will be enough air to breath when I wake up in the morning. As I walk gently on this holy ground, I join Prophet Isaiah to say “ The whole earth proclaims the glory of God.”
Let us take a closer look at our home planet. We usually experience it as stationary, because that is what our five senses tell us. But if we could stop for a moment and reflect, we will realize that we are moving, rather spinning, and yet staying put...that is a huge mystery worthy of adoration itself.
The earth spins around its axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It takes 24 hours to spin around once. The spinning makes our days and nights. But as we spin, we are also on another circle journey as we orbit round the sun. Traveling at the speed of 66,600 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days to complete. In that annual pilgrimage around the sun, we travel 595 million miles—with no oil change or tire rotation. Think about that...
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator doesn't have digits for that. The surface is 300 million square miles; there are 7.7. million species of animals living on it. We are familiar with a cat or a dog or a cow or an elephant, a donkey or a horse but there are millions of others. There are 2700 different species of snakes. Have you ever stood front of an aquarium and watched those beautiful fish with different colors and textures? We might see a dozen varieties; but there are 2400 different ones. There are a 1000 species of birds.
When we see the earth as a whole, from outer space, we can clearly see the connectedness and interdependence of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, dividing ourselves into countries and states. We forget that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth.
We share everything on this planet with other people, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated yesterday through the lungs of somebody living in China. The air in the lungs of the person next to you, enters your lungs in a few minutes. It is like two people eating from the same plate.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and notice two people sharing a plate of food. It shows a level of intimacy, closeness and love.
Few months ago, I had lunch with one of my former supervisors who is also a friend. She ordered dessert and I didn't. A generous portion of ice cream souffle was placed in front of her. “I can't finish it alone Paul, have some” she said. There were two spoons on the plate. The waiter must have thought we were a couple. Initially, I was reluctant to share ice cream with a woman who was not my wife. But ice cream? Forget the wife for an hour. (just kidding).
While eating the ice cream from the same plate with a person who was not my blood family, I felt a special connection and affection for that person. She was from Jamaica, I was from India, we come from totally different worlds, experiences and backgrounds. But when we sat in that Benigans in Fort Lauderdale, and shared ice cream from the same plate, it felt like a divine connection.
Try that some day with somebody who is not a family member. It is an amazing experience of closeness, intimacy, love, freedom and unity.
If you really think about it, sharing food with others, from the same plate is happening every day everywhere. You are doing it right now. You are not sharing ice cream; in fact you are sharing something more important; you are sharing the air—food for your brain. Living on the earth and sharing the same air with everybody else is, in fact like sharing food from the same plate—an abundant cosmic plate.
Everyday, 7 billion people eat from that cosmic plate prepared and provided by mother earth—and the food never runs out.
Jesus had a special appreciation for the earth. He didn't live in high rise condos or work in board rooms. He taught on the mountain top, and the sea side; he prayed in the garden, and died on a hill. He talked about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, because Jesus knew that the earth proclaims the glory of God.
Don't just live on the earth as aliens and strangers, plundering and taking advantage of its resources, but be respectful and grateful for everything that the earth offers, which is our life itself. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. We should always remember that the earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. That should be a humbling thought.
So When you look at earth as your mother, your spirituality immediately improves. It is no more just about saying some prayers, reading the scripture, loving a few neighbors and trying to get to heaven after death. Speaking of scriptures, earth is actually the second scripture. Aquinas said: Divine revelation comes in two volumes; scripture and nature.
We should slow down and observe nature. We should walk barefoot on the grass or the beach. Feel the sensation of the earth sustaining us and holding us tightly and embracing us with its gravity. Earth's gravity and your mother's hug are the same thing.
In fact you are always embraced and hugged by mother earth. Without that, you will be tossed around and lost.
When you think of earth as your mother, you have no choice but to think of all the people on earth-7 billion people as your brothers and sisters. Remember we are all siblings, eating from the same cosmic plate. When you become aware of that, thoughts of nationalism, parochialism and tribalism disappear. You become more of a godly person, because God loves the entire earth and everyone on it. God has no separatist thinking.
When you see earth as mother, you see the big picture; You transcend your tribal mentality and develop a planetary consciousness. You see at all the people on this earth as members of the one body of Christ.
When you expand your consciousness to embrace the entire earth, blessings will begin to flood your life. When you include 7 billion people in our circle of concern, and love 7 billion people, you are going to get 7 billions pieces of blessing. If you just love the people in your household or your neighborhood, your blessings are limited.
So erase hatred; eradicate tribalism; eliminate narrowness; Expand your mind; enlarge your circle; engage with people; evolve as a spiritual being; emanate joy; experience mother earth and embrace humanity.
As you leave the holy ground of this church, I pray that you consider every ground as holy and every person you meet as a manifestation of the Holy One.
MD, however, is not a holy day in the church's calendar and pastors usually shy away from preaching about it for fear of hurting feelings. For example, there are people who were abused or abandoned by their mothers. The last thing they want to hear is nice things about someone who was not nice. Then there are others who have wanted , prayed and waited to become mothers, without success, and carry wounds of deferred dreams.
Suddenly, what seems so simple and profoundly important becomes an uneasy celebration. Our concern for the wounded, often leads us to forgo the rejoicing. I feel that we must celebrate this day, because, as scripture says, we must rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
Our rejoicing should always be combined with compassion-and this applies to all situations in life. For example, look at what is happening in the world these days, especially the earthquake in Nepal. We must weep with the people of Nepal and help them with our prayers and our purses, but we don't have to be unhappy about our blessings.
Besides, I am not going to just talk about our biological mother. I invite you to expand your consciousness about motherhood today: to think about mother in a larger context.
Let me start with a question: ..Is there anyone here with more than one mother? Well I have 4 mothers. Bio mom, mother country, mother Mary..Jesus on cross pointing to Mary at foot of the cross told John: behold your mother..Only speak about bio mom and mother earth.
My mom died a year and half ago 92.
I have the greatest admiration and love for my mom, because, I am who am, largely because of her. She carried me in her womb for 9 months. She made sure that I was nourished and protected. It was not an easy task, esp. in the India of early 50s. Our house was in the middle of a farm. It was a two bedroom house, with cement floor, and thatched roof—for 7 of us and there was no indoor plumbing. And we had no electricity. Here when we loose power for a few hours or few days due to a hurricane or a downed line, we panic. Imagine having no electricity for life....
At night, the whole place was pitch dark, except for the hurricane lamps which gave a faint light for about three feet radius. We had no crib or real beds. We slept on mats, not mattress. We used to fold the mats in the morning so that the room we slept in can be used as living and dining room during the day.
Sanitation was not great. Cockroaches, ants and lizards freely roamed inside the house.. But my mother made sure that I was not bitten by them and took good care of me so that I grew up in one piece with all the limbs intact.
Also, infant mortality rate was high in those days. But my mom, and of course, my dad, made sure that I survived. I lost two siblings, one older and one younger than and each lived for only less than a month.
My mother was a strict disciplinarian. She would not allow me to play with the boys in the neighborhood, because, she thought that they would lead me astray. She would not allow me to go for movies, because she thought the movies would be bad influence.
I did not like my mom for that, at that time. But looking back, I am grateful, because, she did the best she could, to protect me and keep me safe. We should never judge a situation in our past with today's awareness and yard sticks.
Motherhood means sharing in the creative power of God: Conceiving, carrying and giving birth to a human being is as close as any person can come to the act of creation. That is the beginning of motherhood, but it is far from the end: motherhood is also nurturing, sacrificing, unconditionally loving and ultimately letting go.
There may be exceptions to this love, mothers who abuse, or abandon their children, but the ideal motherhood, is a divine vocation. That is why a wise man once said: God created mothers, because he couldn't be everywhere.” A Muslim prophet put it so well when he said: “Paradise is at the feet of a mother.”
I like to talk about my second mother-mother earth. Earth day was just two weeks ago. Again pastors don't usually preach about earth day,because it is considered a worldly topic. I think it should be a holy day..
Just like I came out of my mother's body, I came out of this earth. Todays's scripture, Psalmm 139 says: “You knit me together in my mother's womb” and “You knew me when I was woven toegther in depths of the earth,” thus making a beautiful connecton between the mother's womb and the womb of th earth.
We have this notion that we came ON the earth; It appears like that; but the truth of the matter is that we came OUT of the earth. We are made of the dust of the earth. Just like we share genes and chromosomes, flesh and blood with our mothers, we share all the elements with mother earth; Elements like carbon, hydrogen, calcium, iron that are in the earth's body are also in our body. The earth is 70 percent water ; we are 70 percent water.
I often think about the unfathomable beauty, mystery and magnificence of this moving blue dot in space which holds me up tenderly in the palm of her hands as my mother once did.
Like a mother, the earth gives us so much and demands so little. So, on this mother's day, I invite you to develop a special love and reverence for mother earth, this beautiful tiny planet in this majestic cosmos, on which we are blessed to live.
I have lived on this earth for 23,178 days and it has never failed to provide for me: air, water, and food, the three most basic ingredients needed for my very existence. Thank you holy mother earth.
I have never stayed awake at night, wondering and worrying if there will be enough air to breath when I wake up in the morning. As I walk gently on this holy ground, I join Prophet Isaiah to say “ The whole earth proclaims the glory of God.”
Let us take a closer look at our home planet. We usually experience it as stationary, because that is what our five senses tell us. But if we could stop for a moment and reflect, we will realize that we are moving, rather spinning, and yet staying put...that is a huge mystery worthy of adoration itself.
The earth spins around its axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It takes 24 hours to spin around once. The spinning makes our days and nights. But as we spin, we are also on another circle journey as we orbit round the sun. Traveling at the speed of 66,600 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days to complete. In that annual pilgrimage around the sun, we travel 595 million miles—with no oil change or tire rotation. Think about that...
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator doesn't have digits for that. The surface is 300 million square miles; there are 7.7. million species of animals living on it. We are familiar with a cat or a dog or a cow or an elephant, a donkey or a horse but there are millions of others. There are 2700 different species of snakes. Have you ever stood front of an aquarium and watched those beautiful fish with different colors and textures? We might see a dozen varieties; but there are 2400 different ones. There are a 1000 species of birds.
When we see the earth as a whole, from outer space, we can clearly see the connectedness and interdependence of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, dividing ourselves into countries and states. We forget that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth.
We share everything on this planet with other people, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated yesterday through the lungs of somebody living in China. The air in the lungs of the person next to you, enters your lungs in a few minutes. It is like two people eating from the same plate.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and notice two people sharing a plate of food. It shows a level of intimacy, closeness and love.
Few months ago, I had lunch with one of my former supervisors who is also a friend. She ordered dessert and I didn't. A generous portion of ice cream souffle was placed in front of her. “I can't finish it alone Paul, have some” she said. There were two spoons on the plate. The waiter must have thought we were a couple. Initially, I was reluctant to share ice cream with a woman who was not my wife. But ice cream? Forget the wife for an hour. (just kidding).
While eating the ice cream from the same plate with a person who was not my blood family, I felt a special connection and affection for that person. She was from Jamaica, I was from India, we come from totally different worlds, experiences and backgrounds. But when we sat in that Benigans in Fort Lauderdale, and shared ice cream from the same plate, it felt like a divine connection.
Try that some day with somebody who is not a family member. It is an amazing experience of closeness, intimacy, love, freedom and unity.
If you really think about it, sharing food with others, from the same plate is happening every day everywhere. You are doing it right now. You are not sharing ice cream; in fact you are sharing something more important; you are sharing the air—food for your brain. Living on the earth and sharing the same air with everybody else is, in fact like sharing food from the same plate—an abundant cosmic plate.
Everyday, 7 billion people eat from that cosmic plate prepared and provided by mother earth—and the food never runs out.
Jesus had a special appreciation for the earth. He didn't live in high rise condos or work in board rooms. He taught on the mountain top, and the sea side; he prayed in the garden, and died on a hill. He talked about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, because Jesus knew that the earth proclaims the glory of God.
Don't just live on the earth as aliens and strangers, plundering and taking advantage of its resources, but be respectful and grateful for everything that the earth offers, which is our life itself. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. We should always remember that the earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. That should be a humbling thought.
So When you look at earth as your mother, your spirituality immediately improves. It is no more just about saying some prayers, reading the scripture, loving a few neighbors and trying to get to heaven after death. Speaking of scriptures, earth is actually the second scripture. Aquinas said: Divine revelation comes in two volumes; scripture and nature.
We should slow down and observe nature. We should walk barefoot on the grass or the beach. Feel the sensation of the earth sustaining us and holding us tightly and embracing us with its gravity. Earth's gravity and your mother's hug are the same thing.
In fact you are always embraced and hugged by mother earth. Without that, you will be tossed around and lost.
When you think of earth as your mother, you have no choice but to think of all the people on earth-7 billion people as your brothers and sisters. Remember we are all siblings, eating from the same cosmic plate. When you become aware of that, thoughts of nationalism, parochialism and tribalism disappear. You become more of a godly person, because God loves the entire earth and everyone on it. God has no separatist thinking.
When you see earth as mother, you see the big picture; You transcend your tribal mentality and develop a planetary consciousness. You see at all the people on this earth as members of the one body of Christ.
When you expand your consciousness to embrace the entire earth, blessings will begin to flood your life. When you include 7 billion people in our circle of concern, and love 7 billion people, you are going to get 7 billions pieces of blessing. If you just love the people in your household or your neighborhood, your blessings are limited.
So erase hatred; eradicate tribalism; eliminate narrowness; Expand your mind; enlarge your circle; engage with people; evolve as a spiritual being; emanate joy; experience mother earth and embrace humanity.
As you leave the holy ground of this church, I pray that you consider every ground as holy and every person you meet as a manifestation of the Holy One.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
HOLY GROUND, NOT STAND YOUR GROUND
A woman called her husband and told him to pick up some organic vegetables for that nite's dinner. The husband stops at the store, starts searching allover the place couldn't find. Asked the produce guy. The produce guy didn't know what he was asking about. So the husband said: “These vegetables are for my wife. Heave they been sprayed with poisonous chemicals?
And the produce guy replied: “No sir, you will have to do that yourself.”
Last Wednesday was earth day. There was lot of talk about eating organic vegetables, eco-friendly living, climate change, etc. Usually, you don't hear much about earth day in churches because, it is considered a “worldly” topic. Last year, after I preached a sermon on earth day. A nice lady chided me for talking about earth in church instead of the Bible. How an earthly topic could belong in a heavenly place, she thought.
Years ago, I would not have noticed this day, or paid any attention to it, let alone preach about it. So much has changed in my spiritual life that I consider earth day as important as other religious holy days.
I have reflected deeply about the unfathomable beauty, mystery and magnificence of this moving, yes moving blue dot in space which holds me up as God holds me tenderly in the palm of His/Her hand.
Today, I invite you to join me in reflecting about the earth from a spiritual point of view. I want you consider it from a divine perspective. You have heard the song “I am standing on holy ground” sung in churches. It is referring specifically to the church as holy ground. I invite you expand your mind to include every ground as holy, the whole earth as holy, because, it is created by God.
That is why the psalmist proclaims (24:1) “the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.” “Be exalted, O God above the heavens and let your glory be over all the earth (108:5).
Thomas Aquinas who understood the deeper meaning of that psalm said: “Divine revelation comes in two volumes; scripture and nature.”
Theologian Thomas Berry elaborates it: “The natural world is our primary scripture, our primary awakening to the mysteries of existence. We might well put all our written scriptures on the shelf for twenty years until we learn what we are being told by unmediated experience of the world about us.”
We usually focus our attention on the Bible and look for God in the book. But today, I like you to focus on the earth beneath your feet and around your eyes to experience God.
I have lived on this earth 23,468 days and it has never failed to provide for me: air, water and food, the three most basic ingredients needed for my very existence. Thank you holy mother earth. As I walk gently on this holy ground, I join with prophet Isaiah this morning to say: “The whole earth proclaims the glory of God.”
Let us take a closer look at our home planet. We usually experience it as stationary, because that is what our five senses tell us. But if we could stop for a moment and reflect, we will realize that we are moving, rather spinning, and yet staying put...that is a huge mystery worthy of adoration itself.
The earth spins around its axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It takes 24 hours to spin around once. The spinning makes our days and nights. But as we spin, we are also on another circle journey as we orbit round the sun. Traveling at the speed of 66,600 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days to complete. In that annual pilgrimage around the sun, we travel 595 million miles—with no oil change or tire rotation. Think about that...
This moving planet is huge. But compared to the sun, earth is very tiny...the sun is 1.3 million times bigger than the earth, but compared to Antares, the 15th brightest star in the sky, which is a 1000 light years away, the sun is a pixel. It is a mind boggling mystery.
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator doesn't have digits for that. The surface is 300 million square miles; there are 7.7. million species of animals living on it. We are familiar with a cat or a dog or a cow or an elephant, a donkey or a horse but there are millions of others. There are 2700 different species of snakes. Have you ever stood front of an aquarium and watched those beautiful fish with different colors and textures? We might see a dozen varieties; but there are 2400 different ones. There are a 1000 species of birds.
And the amazing thing is that this huge earth with everything in it is not attached to anything...nothing below, nothing above, nothing in front or back, except deep dark endless space...and yet we don't fall down or spin out of control.....we don't deviate from the path...because, if we deviate from the orbit by one inch closer to the sun, we will be incinerated; one inch away, we will be frozen to death; to me that is one of the greatest mystery and miracle that God has created.
Just go to the beach, look at the vast ocean and endless sky and contemplate the universe and ..if your eyes bulge with tears, and your heart pound with wonder and your mind feels a deep awe, you are having a spiritual experience. You are connecting with God, the creator of the universe. Such an awareness of distance, speed and order creates a sense of awe and wonder.
Astronauts and cosmonauts who have had the privilege of seeing the earth from space were always moved by its beauty and majesty. This is what astronaut Edgar Mitchell said as he gazed down on the home planet:
On the return trip home, gazing 240,000 miles of space towards the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving and harmonious. My view of the planet was a glimpse of divinity.
Perhaps what we need is a trip to outer space, to have our eyes and hearts opened to see the sacredness behind the superficial.
But, wait a minute. We are traveling in space; we don't have to lift our bodies from the earth to see the beauty and the splendor of God's creation; we only need to lift our minds...and open our eyes. But, that is the problem...our minds are small and our eyes are closed..
It is worthy of note that Mitchell uses the word 'divinity' but not 'God'. God is a divisive term for many. Religions people fight over their own definitions of God and make declarations like, “My God is bigger than your God.” “My God can beat up our God.” “The Christian god is a man, the Hindu god is a cow and the Muslim God is a terrrorist,”
When we use 'divinity' instead of “God' what is at work here is 'spirituality' not 'religion.' And our goal is to evolve more each day as spiritual beings not merely as religious people.
When we see the earth as a whole, from outer space, we can clearly see the connectedness and interdependence of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, dividing ourselves into countries and states. We forget that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth.
We share everything on this planet with other people, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated yesterday through the lungs of somebody living in China. The air in the lungs of the person next to you, enters your lungs in a few minutes. It is like two people eating from the same plate.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and notice two people sharing a plate of food. It shows a level of intimacy, closeness and love.
Few months ago, I had lunch with one of my former supervisors who is also a friend. She ordered dessert and I didn't. A generous portion of ice cream souffle was placed in front of her. “I can't finish it alone Paul, have some” she said. There were two spoons on the plate. The waiter must have thought we were a couple. Initially, I was reluctant to share ice cream with a woman who was not my wife. But ice cream? Forget the wife for a second. (just kidding).
While eating the ice cream from the same plate with a person who was not my blood family, I felt a special connection and affection for that person. She was from Jamaica, I was from India, we come from totally different worlds, experiences and backgrounds. But when we sat in that Benigans in Fort Lauderdale, and shared ice cream from the same plate, it felt like a divine connection.
Try that some day with somebody who is not a family member. It is an amazing experience of closeness, intimacy, love, freedom and unity. (and don't let your partner find out...just kidding).
If you really think about it, sharing food with others, from the same plate is happening every day everywhere. You are doing it right now. You are not sharing ice cream; in fact you are sharing something more important; you are sharing the air—food for your brain. Living on the earth and sharing the same air with everybody else is, in fact like sharing food from the same plate—an abundant cosmic plate.
Everyday, 7 billion people eat from that cosmic plate prepared and provided by mother earth—and the food never runs out.
Jesus had a special appreciation for the earth. He didn't live in high rise condos or work in board rooms. He taught on the mountain top, and the sea side; he prayed in the garden, and died on a hill. He talked about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, because Jesus knew that the earth proclaims the glory of God.
Don't just live on the earth as aliens and strangers, plundering and taking advantage of its resources, but be respectful and grateful for everything that the earth offers, which is our life itself. We should erase from our minds the mistaken idea that we are living “on” the earth and replace it with the notion that we are living “with” the earth, because we are part of it. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. We should always remember that the earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. That should be a humbling thought.
So celebrating earth day is about seeing the big picture; it is about feeling the connection with the earth, with everything and everyone on it; it is about thinking about the welfare of all people beyond the boundaries our nation; it is about relinquishing narrow nationalism and embracing a wider humanity; Earth day is about looking at all the people on this earth as members of the one body of Christ.
It is about transcending our tribal mentality and having a planetary consciousness.
It is about feeling the love of Jesus in our heart and walking on holy ground as opposed to holding a gun in our hand and “stand our ground.” We know what that did to Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.
If George Zimmerman had considered his neighborhood “holy ground” a great tragedy could have been averted. Instead, he saw the little swath of real estate he occupied, as his ground that needs to be protected by him from “others.”
Earth day should remind us that there is no ground that needs protecting or barricading and that we are on the ground only for a short period of time.
“Divine revelation comes in two volumes: Scripture and Nature.” I encourage you to focus on the second volume!
As you leave the holy ground of this church, I pray that you consider every ground as holy and every person you meet as a manifestation of the Holy One.
And the produce guy replied: “No sir, you will have to do that yourself.”
Last Wednesday was earth day. There was lot of talk about eating organic vegetables, eco-friendly living, climate change, etc. Usually, you don't hear much about earth day in churches because, it is considered a “worldly” topic. Last year, after I preached a sermon on earth day. A nice lady chided me for talking about earth in church instead of the Bible. How an earthly topic could belong in a heavenly place, she thought.
Years ago, I would not have noticed this day, or paid any attention to it, let alone preach about it. So much has changed in my spiritual life that I consider earth day as important as other religious holy days.
I have reflected deeply about the unfathomable beauty, mystery and magnificence of this moving, yes moving blue dot in space which holds me up as God holds me tenderly in the palm of His/Her hand.
Today, I invite you to join me in reflecting about the earth from a spiritual point of view. I want you consider it from a divine perspective. You have heard the song “I am standing on holy ground” sung in churches. It is referring specifically to the church as holy ground. I invite you expand your mind to include every ground as holy, the whole earth as holy, because, it is created by God.
That is why the psalmist proclaims (24:1) “the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.” “Be exalted, O God above the heavens and let your glory be over all the earth (108:5).
Thomas Aquinas who understood the deeper meaning of that psalm said: “Divine revelation comes in two volumes; scripture and nature.”
Theologian Thomas Berry elaborates it: “The natural world is our primary scripture, our primary awakening to the mysteries of existence. We might well put all our written scriptures on the shelf for twenty years until we learn what we are being told by unmediated experience of the world about us.”
We usually focus our attention on the Bible and look for God in the book. But today, I like you to focus on the earth beneath your feet and around your eyes to experience God.
I have lived on this earth 23,468 days and it has never failed to provide for me: air, water and food, the three most basic ingredients needed for my very existence. Thank you holy mother earth. As I walk gently on this holy ground, I join with prophet Isaiah this morning to say: “The whole earth proclaims the glory of God.”
Let us take a closer look at our home planet. We usually experience it as stationary, because that is what our five senses tell us. But if we could stop for a moment and reflect, we will realize that we are moving, rather spinning, and yet staying put...that is a huge mystery worthy of adoration itself.
The earth spins around its axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It takes 24 hours to spin around once. The spinning makes our days and nights. But as we spin, we are also on another circle journey as we orbit round the sun. Traveling at the speed of 66,600 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days to complete. In that annual pilgrimage around the sun, we travel 595 million miles—with no oil change or tire rotation. Think about that...
This moving planet is huge. But compared to the sun, earth is very tiny...the sun is 1.3 million times bigger than the earth, but compared to Antares, the 15th brightest star in the sky, which is a 1000 light years away, the sun is a pixel. It is a mind boggling mystery.
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator doesn't have digits for that. The surface is 300 million square miles; there are 7.7. million species of animals living on it. We are familiar with a cat or a dog or a cow or an elephant, a donkey or a horse but there are millions of others. There are 2700 different species of snakes. Have you ever stood front of an aquarium and watched those beautiful fish with different colors and textures? We might see a dozen varieties; but there are 2400 different ones. There are a 1000 species of birds.
And the amazing thing is that this huge earth with everything in it is not attached to anything...nothing below, nothing above, nothing in front or back, except deep dark endless space...and yet we don't fall down or spin out of control.....we don't deviate from the path...because, if we deviate from the orbit by one inch closer to the sun, we will be incinerated; one inch away, we will be frozen to death; to me that is one of the greatest mystery and miracle that God has created.
Just go to the beach, look at the vast ocean and endless sky and contemplate the universe and ..if your eyes bulge with tears, and your heart pound with wonder and your mind feels a deep awe, you are having a spiritual experience. You are connecting with God, the creator of the universe. Such an awareness of distance, speed and order creates a sense of awe and wonder.
Astronauts and cosmonauts who have had the privilege of seeing the earth from space were always moved by its beauty and majesty. This is what astronaut Edgar Mitchell said as he gazed down on the home planet:
On the return trip home, gazing 240,000 miles of space towards the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving and harmonious. My view of the planet was a glimpse of divinity.
Perhaps what we need is a trip to outer space, to have our eyes and hearts opened to see the sacredness behind the superficial.
But, wait a minute. We are traveling in space; we don't have to lift our bodies from the earth to see the beauty and the splendor of God's creation; we only need to lift our minds...and open our eyes. But, that is the problem...our minds are small and our eyes are closed..
It is worthy of note that Mitchell uses the word 'divinity' but not 'God'. God is a divisive term for many. Religions people fight over their own definitions of God and make declarations like, “My God is bigger than your God.” “My God can beat up our God.” “The Christian god is a man, the Hindu god is a cow and the Muslim God is a terrrorist,”
When we use 'divinity' instead of “God' what is at work here is 'spirituality' not 'religion.' And our goal is to evolve more each day as spiritual beings not merely as religious people.
When we see the earth as a whole, from outer space, we can clearly see the connectedness and interdependence of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, dividing ourselves into countries and states. We forget that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth.
We share everything on this planet with other people, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated yesterday through the lungs of somebody living in China. The air in the lungs of the person next to you, enters your lungs in a few minutes. It is like two people eating from the same plate.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and notice two people sharing a plate of food. It shows a level of intimacy, closeness and love.
Few months ago, I had lunch with one of my former supervisors who is also a friend. She ordered dessert and I didn't. A generous portion of ice cream souffle was placed in front of her. “I can't finish it alone Paul, have some” she said. There were two spoons on the plate. The waiter must have thought we were a couple. Initially, I was reluctant to share ice cream with a woman who was not my wife. But ice cream? Forget the wife for a second. (just kidding).
While eating the ice cream from the same plate with a person who was not my blood family, I felt a special connection and affection for that person. She was from Jamaica, I was from India, we come from totally different worlds, experiences and backgrounds. But when we sat in that Benigans in Fort Lauderdale, and shared ice cream from the same plate, it felt like a divine connection.
Try that some day with somebody who is not a family member. It is an amazing experience of closeness, intimacy, love, freedom and unity. (and don't let your partner find out...just kidding).
If you really think about it, sharing food with others, from the same plate is happening every day everywhere. You are doing it right now. You are not sharing ice cream; in fact you are sharing something more important; you are sharing the air—food for your brain. Living on the earth and sharing the same air with everybody else is, in fact like sharing food from the same plate—an abundant cosmic plate.
Everyday, 7 billion people eat from that cosmic plate prepared and provided by mother earth—and the food never runs out.
Jesus had a special appreciation for the earth. He didn't live in high rise condos or work in board rooms. He taught on the mountain top, and the sea side; he prayed in the garden, and died on a hill. He talked about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, because Jesus knew that the earth proclaims the glory of God.
Don't just live on the earth as aliens and strangers, plundering and taking advantage of its resources, but be respectful and grateful for everything that the earth offers, which is our life itself. We should erase from our minds the mistaken idea that we are living “on” the earth and replace it with the notion that we are living “with” the earth, because we are part of it. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. We should always remember that the earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. That should be a humbling thought.
So celebrating earth day is about seeing the big picture; it is about feeling the connection with the earth, with everything and everyone on it; it is about thinking about the welfare of all people beyond the boundaries our nation; it is about relinquishing narrow nationalism and embracing a wider humanity; Earth day is about looking at all the people on this earth as members of the one body of Christ.
It is about transcending our tribal mentality and having a planetary consciousness.
It is about feeling the love of Jesus in our heart and walking on holy ground as opposed to holding a gun in our hand and “stand our ground.” We know what that did to Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.
If George Zimmerman had considered his neighborhood “holy ground” a great tragedy could have been averted. Instead, he saw the little swath of real estate he occupied, as his ground that needs to be protected by him from “others.”
Earth day should remind us that there is no ground that needs protecting or barricading and that we are on the ground only for a short period of time.
“Divine revelation comes in two volumes: Scripture and Nature.” I encourage you to focus on the second volume!
As you leave the holy ground of this church, I pray that you consider every ground as holy and every person you meet as a manifestation of the Holy One.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
WHY GOOD NEWS PEOPLE LIVE BAD NEWS LIVES
Once a pastor told his congregation: “I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that there is enough money in this congregation to give me a raise; the bad news is that money is in your wallets.”
Today's sermon- why good news people live bad news lives- is actually the title of one of my books. I am not preaching about it to sell books. Even if everyone here buys ten copies each, it is still not going to make me rich.
The reason I chose to preach about it is that, this question has always nagged me. Why do so many Christians, who claim to have received the good news of Jesus, behave so badly?
This question did not bother me much when I lived in India, because India is predominantly a Hindu nation. Christians are only a mere 2 percent. There are no mega churches; there are no TV evangelists. Vast areas of the country has no churches. There are no bibles in hotels. There are no hotels except in big cities.
It is very different here. Nearly 90 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. There are churches every where. There are 18 churches in a 5 mile radius of my house. Christians believe that they are the people of the Good News. Some people are even proud that they have it, with a slight touch of holy arrogance, I might add.
The other day a very religious person told me that those who don't believe in Jesus as their personal savior are going to hell for eternity. He had no doubt about that, because he had the good news and people belonging to other religions did not.
How do we live bad news lives? If you are living your life—angry, upset, impatient, short tempered, sad and depressed, and not so pleasant to be around, you are living a bad news life. People who have received the good news of Jesus should not feel or behave like that on a daily basis. Imagine you have won ten million dollars in a lottery. You think you will be sad, upset, gloomy and depressed? Good news is supposed to make us excited.
If you get up every morning with no energy and enthusiasm, and look at the world with negative lens, you are living a bad news life. If you are anxious and stressed out about everything, and experience a lot of anxiety and fear, you are living a bad news life. If your life is devoid of abiding joy, you are living a bad news life. The good news of Jesus has not penetrated your life.
When we are bad news to ourselves it is so hard to be good news to others. Hitler was bad news to 6 million Jews. George Zimmerman was bad news to Travon Martin, and by extension, to a whole lot of people. Each of us is capable of being bad news on a smaller scale, to the people around us, the people we live with work with and interact with.
About 3 billion occupants of this planet are supposedly “good news people” and of course that includes us. America is often described as a Christian nation. So, why is our country and the world largely a bad news place? Why there is such abject poverty, war, hatred, killings, divisions, disunity, homophobia, and partisanship? Why is such income inequality in this country? Why would those who claim to be followers of the “Prince of Peace” amass guns and assault weapons whose only purpose is to hurt and kill? What are they afraid of if they claim to understand the message of the risen Jesus who said: “Be not afraid?
My theory is that many Christians don't even know what the good news is, let alone understand what it really means!
What is the good news of Jesus? Think for a moment. If someone were to ask you to explain it, what would you say?
I posed that question on my Face Book page. I have 291 friends on Face Book. Only 9 of them offered an answer.
The gist of the answers was that “Jesus died for our sins; and after we die, we go to heaven and spend eternity with him.”
In a bible study group, a lady said: “Jesus died for our sins thereby giving us eternal life in heaven after we die; our salvation is guaranteed in Jesus.”
I shared these answers with my wife Judy. Her response was: “How is somebody's “death” “good news.”? It sounds like “bad news.” Besides, Jesus died 2000 years ago; what did I do? How can his death “then,” benefit my life “now”?
If Judy who is a baby-boomer thinks like that, can you imagine what the millennials are thinking? I don't think they are thinking much about anything, let alone serious theology. They are just repeating the phrase: “Jesus died for our sins” without understanding it. If you don't understand what you are repeating, it is unlikely to change your life.
Do you really know what that phrase means? Can you explain it in your own words? Try it, you will be surprised.
Let me clarify something; Jesus did not die on the cross; he was killed on the cross. What is the difference, you might ask. There is a big difference. It is not like Jesus woke up the morning of that Friday, and decided that he was going to die on the cross and asked the soldiers to pin him down and pierce his hands, legs and heart so that he could just die, something like an assisted suicide! He was just 33 years old. Who wants to die at 33? Who wants to die at any age?
If Jesus were to die of cancer at age of 90 under hospice care, we will not be sitting here. There would not have been any Christianity. It is the power of his resurrection that fueled the Christian movement. Resurrection means that the powers of evil cannot overcome the power and grace of God.
Jesus was brutally murdered by the authorities because his message and ideas were a threat to their very survival. The Pharisees did not want to give up their idea of religion. The Romans did not want to give up their grip on power. Jesus was a threat to both. They wanted to get rid of the troublemaker, so they conspired, fabricated a case and executed him.
In that sense, Jesus didn’t die so much “for” the sins of the world as he died “because” of the sins of the world. In other words, Jesus was killed “because of our sins,” rather than “for our sins.”
It makes us responsible for his death rather than beneficiaries of his death.
See how re-framing our thinking about Jesus' death, changes our image of Jesus.
This understanding will hopefully help us not to kill Jesus today through our hate, prejudice and insensitivity towards other people who are Jesus in disguise, because, “whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.”
So, back to the topic of good news. What is the good news of Jesus? I think the good news of Jesus is his “life,” not his “death.” Preachers and teachers have focused so much on the “death” of Jesus that they forget the “life” of Jesus, the message he preached, the kind of life he lived, the boundary-breaking love he showed, the forgiveness he practiced, the mercy he manifested for the lowly and the downtrodden.
If you read the gospels carefully, you will find that Jesus never called us sinners. Jesus never said that he came to die for our sins. Jesus never said he came to take us into heaven.
In the first 3 three gospels, Jesus appears on the scene when he was about 30 years old. He is baptized in the river Jordan; he is tempted for three days in the desert and after that he officially begins his public ministry.
What are the first words that Jesus spoke? According to Mt: 4:17, they are, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. According to Mk: 1:14, Jesus says: The Kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the good news.
The fact that the kingdom of God is “near” is the good news. Mathew and Mark do not explain what the kingdom is in that statement. In Luke we get an explanation. Jesus does not use the word kingdom in his inaugural speech as recorded in Luke 4. Like in Mark and Mathew, Jesus begins to preach after the baptism and temptation. He goes to a synagogue and reads from the book of Isaiah.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.
So what is this good news? The next lines unpack it: The good news is that Jesus has come to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners;” to bring “recovery of sight for the blind;” “to release the oppressed,” “to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” If you follow Jesus you can experience all the above.
So the good news is that if you are a prisoner to your addictions and narrow mindedness and prejudices and hatreds, your one track mind, your arrogant nationalism, your thinking that everybody who disagrees with you should be destroyed, everybody who does not believe in him will go to hell, Jesus has come to help you change that.
The good news is that if you are blind to the beauty of God's creation around you, if you are blind to the goodness of people in the world, if you are blind to the blessings you already have, if you are blind to the poverty and injustice around you, if you are blind to the needs of others, then Jesus has come to heal your blindness and open your eyes.
The good news is that the Kingdom is near. This is not a far away land, a location beyond the clouds, a gated community for selected people, but a reality right here in the midst of our world. A Kingdom of love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, kindness and a sense of well being. That is why Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”
The good news is that Jesus has come to proclaim the “year of the Lord’s favor” when debts are forgiven, mercy is shown to strangers, compassion is manifested, and peace and harmony prevail among the people. You can read about what the year of the Lord entails in Leviticus chapter 25. It is called the Jubilee year.
The good news is not a headline in a news paper. The good news is not words in a holy book.
The good news is the person of Jesus himself. Remember when he was born, the angel announced to the shepherds: I bring you good news of great joy to the people. (Lk 2:10)
So to experience the good news, we have to get to know the “historical Jesus” and follow him.
Most Christians don't know the historical Jesus; they only know the “Christ of faith.”
They know him as the Son of God, begotten by the father, born of a virgin, and the second person of the Holy Trinity. It is an “impressive resume.” But, focusing on the divinity of Jesus has very little impact on our humanity.
We will worship him in church and leave, but how can we follow the “second person of the Holy Trinity”?
We have to discover the “human Jesus” in the pages of the gospels who has the power to transform our lives as he did the lives of Nicodemus, Zacheus, Jairus, Nathaniel, Mathew and a lot of others. Everyone who encountered Jesus was transformed. We need to encounter Jesus and follow him rather than put him on a pedestal and worship him.
We cannot be like Jesus unless we find out what Jesus was like. We have to change our whole mind-set about what it means to be a Christian. That is why the first word out of the mouth of Jesus was: “Repent.” But repent does not mean, feel sorry for your sins. It has nothing to do with feeling bad or sorry for anything.
The Greek word for repent is metanoeo which means, a different mind. You have to have a different mind about things. You have to change your thinking and align that with the mind of Jesus: a new way of thinking and seeing the world. As apostle Paul would say: “You have to put on the mind of Christ.”
You have to think like Jesus, feel like Jesus and behave like Jesus. When you do that, you will start feeling the good news and that will lead you to being good news for others.
Today's sermon- why good news people live bad news lives- is actually the title of one of my books. I am not preaching about it to sell books. Even if everyone here buys ten copies each, it is still not going to make me rich.
The reason I chose to preach about it is that, this question has always nagged me. Why do so many Christians, who claim to have received the good news of Jesus, behave so badly?
This question did not bother me much when I lived in India, because India is predominantly a Hindu nation. Christians are only a mere 2 percent. There are no mega churches; there are no TV evangelists. Vast areas of the country has no churches. There are no bibles in hotels. There are no hotels except in big cities.
It is very different here. Nearly 90 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. There are churches every where. There are 18 churches in a 5 mile radius of my house. Christians believe that they are the people of the Good News. Some people are even proud that they have it, with a slight touch of holy arrogance, I might add.
The other day a very religious person told me that those who don't believe in Jesus as their personal savior are going to hell for eternity. He had no doubt about that, because he had the good news and people belonging to other religions did not.
How do we live bad news lives? If you are living your life—angry, upset, impatient, short tempered, sad and depressed, and not so pleasant to be around, you are living a bad news life. People who have received the good news of Jesus should not feel or behave like that on a daily basis. Imagine you have won ten million dollars in a lottery. You think you will be sad, upset, gloomy and depressed? Good news is supposed to make us excited.
If you get up every morning with no energy and enthusiasm, and look at the world with negative lens, you are living a bad news life. If you are anxious and stressed out about everything, and experience a lot of anxiety and fear, you are living a bad news life. If your life is devoid of abiding joy, you are living a bad news life. The good news of Jesus has not penetrated your life.
When we are bad news to ourselves it is so hard to be good news to others. Hitler was bad news to 6 million Jews. George Zimmerman was bad news to Travon Martin, and by extension, to a whole lot of people. Each of us is capable of being bad news on a smaller scale, to the people around us, the people we live with work with and interact with.
About 3 billion occupants of this planet are supposedly “good news people” and of course that includes us. America is often described as a Christian nation. So, why is our country and the world largely a bad news place? Why there is such abject poverty, war, hatred, killings, divisions, disunity, homophobia, and partisanship? Why is such income inequality in this country? Why would those who claim to be followers of the “Prince of Peace” amass guns and assault weapons whose only purpose is to hurt and kill? What are they afraid of if they claim to understand the message of the risen Jesus who said: “Be not afraid?
My theory is that many Christians don't even know what the good news is, let alone understand what it really means!
What is the good news of Jesus? Think for a moment. If someone were to ask you to explain it, what would you say?
I posed that question on my Face Book page. I have 291 friends on Face Book. Only 9 of them offered an answer.
The gist of the answers was that “Jesus died for our sins; and after we die, we go to heaven and spend eternity with him.”
In a bible study group, a lady said: “Jesus died for our sins thereby giving us eternal life in heaven after we die; our salvation is guaranteed in Jesus.”
I shared these answers with my wife Judy. Her response was: “How is somebody's “death” “good news.”? It sounds like “bad news.” Besides, Jesus died 2000 years ago; what did I do? How can his death “then,” benefit my life “now”?
If Judy who is a baby-boomer thinks like that, can you imagine what the millennials are thinking? I don't think they are thinking much about anything, let alone serious theology. They are just repeating the phrase: “Jesus died for our sins” without understanding it. If you don't understand what you are repeating, it is unlikely to change your life.
Do you really know what that phrase means? Can you explain it in your own words? Try it, you will be surprised.
Let me clarify something; Jesus did not die on the cross; he was killed on the cross. What is the difference, you might ask. There is a big difference. It is not like Jesus woke up the morning of that Friday, and decided that he was going to die on the cross and asked the soldiers to pin him down and pierce his hands, legs and heart so that he could just die, something like an assisted suicide! He was just 33 years old. Who wants to die at 33? Who wants to die at any age?
If Jesus were to die of cancer at age of 90 under hospice care, we will not be sitting here. There would not have been any Christianity. It is the power of his resurrection that fueled the Christian movement. Resurrection means that the powers of evil cannot overcome the power and grace of God.
Jesus was brutally murdered by the authorities because his message and ideas were a threat to their very survival. The Pharisees did not want to give up their idea of religion. The Romans did not want to give up their grip on power. Jesus was a threat to both. They wanted to get rid of the troublemaker, so they conspired, fabricated a case and executed him.
In that sense, Jesus didn’t die so much “for” the sins of the world as he died “because” of the sins of the world. In other words, Jesus was killed “because of our sins,” rather than “for our sins.”
It makes us responsible for his death rather than beneficiaries of his death.
See how re-framing our thinking about Jesus' death, changes our image of Jesus.
This understanding will hopefully help us not to kill Jesus today through our hate, prejudice and insensitivity towards other people who are Jesus in disguise, because, “whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.”
So, back to the topic of good news. What is the good news of Jesus? I think the good news of Jesus is his “life,” not his “death.” Preachers and teachers have focused so much on the “death” of Jesus that they forget the “life” of Jesus, the message he preached, the kind of life he lived, the boundary-breaking love he showed, the forgiveness he practiced, the mercy he manifested for the lowly and the downtrodden.
If you read the gospels carefully, you will find that Jesus never called us sinners. Jesus never said that he came to die for our sins. Jesus never said he came to take us into heaven.
In the first 3 three gospels, Jesus appears on the scene when he was about 30 years old. He is baptized in the river Jordan; he is tempted for three days in the desert and after that he officially begins his public ministry.
What are the first words that Jesus spoke? According to Mt: 4:17, they are, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. According to Mk: 1:14, Jesus says: The Kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the good news.
The fact that the kingdom of God is “near” is the good news. Mathew and Mark do not explain what the kingdom is in that statement. In Luke we get an explanation. Jesus does not use the word kingdom in his inaugural speech as recorded in Luke 4. Like in Mark and Mathew, Jesus begins to preach after the baptism and temptation. He goes to a synagogue and reads from the book of Isaiah.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.
So what is this good news? The next lines unpack it: The good news is that Jesus has come to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners;” to bring “recovery of sight for the blind;” “to release the oppressed,” “to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” If you follow Jesus you can experience all the above.
So the good news is that if you are a prisoner to your addictions and narrow mindedness and prejudices and hatreds, your one track mind, your arrogant nationalism, your thinking that everybody who disagrees with you should be destroyed, everybody who does not believe in him will go to hell, Jesus has come to help you change that.
The good news is that if you are blind to the beauty of God's creation around you, if you are blind to the goodness of people in the world, if you are blind to the blessings you already have, if you are blind to the poverty and injustice around you, if you are blind to the needs of others, then Jesus has come to heal your blindness and open your eyes.
The good news is that the Kingdom is near. This is not a far away land, a location beyond the clouds, a gated community for selected people, but a reality right here in the midst of our world. A Kingdom of love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, kindness and a sense of well being. That is why Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”
The good news is that Jesus has come to proclaim the “year of the Lord’s favor” when debts are forgiven, mercy is shown to strangers, compassion is manifested, and peace and harmony prevail among the people. You can read about what the year of the Lord entails in Leviticus chapter 25. It is called the Jubilee year.
The good news is not a headline in a news paper. The good news is not words in a holy book.
The good news is the person of Jesus himself. Remember when he was born, the angel announced to the shepherds: I bring you good news of great joy to the people. (Lk 2:10)
So to experience the good news, we have to get to know the “historical Jesus” and follow him.
Most Christians don't know the historical Jesus; they only know the “Christ of faith.”
They know him as the Son of God, begotten by the father, born of a virgin, and the second person of the Holy Trinity. It is an “impressive resume.” But, focusing on the divinity of Jesus has very little impact on our humanity.
We will worship him in church and leave, but how can we follow the “second person of the Holy Trinity”?
We have to discover the “human Jesus” in the pages of the gospels who has the power to transform our lives as he did the lives of Nicodemus, Zacheus, Jairus, Nathaniel, Mathew and a lot of others. Everyone who encountered Jesus was transformed. We need to encounter Jesus and follow him rather than put him on a pedestal and worship him.
We cannot be like Jesus unless we find out what Jesus was like. We have to change our whole mind-set about what it means to be a Christian. That is why the first word out of the mouth of Jesus was: “Repent.” But repent does not mean, feel sorry for your sins. It has nothing to do with feeling bad or sorry for anything.
The Greek word for repent is metanoeo which means, a different mind. You have to have a different mind about things. You have to change your thinking and align that with the mind of Jesus: a new way of thinking and seeing the world. As apostle Paul would say: “You have to put on the mind of Christ.”
You have to think like Jesus, feel like Jesus and behave like Jesus. When you do that, you will start feeling the good news and that will lead you to being good news for others.
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